We regret to announce the death of Joe Hodgson, a former member of the Preston Historical Society and Trustee of the Preston Pals War Memorial Trust. Joe was a fount of knowledge of all things military and in particular the history and background of the Preston Pals. He will be sadly missed. There follows a brief tribute to Joe Hodgson by Andrew Mather, Chairman. Preston Pals War Memorial Trust and President, Preston Historical Society.

A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE JOE HODGSON ~ RIP 21 August 2011

I am honoured to make this tribute to Joe on behalf of members, both past and present, of the Preston Historical Society and the Trustees of the Preston Pals War Memorial Trust.
The Preston Historical Society was founded in 1948 and Joe was soon involved serving as Secretary in those early years and then as President in 1976 and 2002. His main contribution to the work of the Society was photographing and recording the changes to the buildings of Preston for posterity.
The first meetings were held in the Children’s Library in the Harris and Joe dealt with Miss Jane Downton who was then the Chief Librarian of Preston and President of the Historical Society. Other venues which Joe was involved in setting up included the Lillian Wood Memorial Hall behind the old Post Office in Market Street; Grimshaw Street School; The Conservative Club in Guildhall Street; and the Stanley Arms in Lancaster Road. Joe told the story about one Lady member – all women were Ladies to Joe – leaving the Stanley Arms after a meeting when she was confronted by a man with a knife! Needless to say the Society stopped using that venue.
Joe also worked closely with Beth Hayes and Marian Roberts, who were both pillars of the Preston Historical Society and the local history community for many years. As was his custom he supported them with his usual charm and modesty. Because of Joe’s interest and background in all things military one of his talks to the Society members concerned the tracing of military ancestors, which is very much in vogue today. His commitment and service of more than sixty years was recently recognised with Honorary Life
Membership of Preston Historical Society.
Though easing off his involvement with the Historical Society in his later years Joe continued his work as a volunteer at the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment Museum in Fulwood Barracks, until April this year. And as if this was not enough Joe regularly attended meetings of the Western Front Association and was an active member of the Civic Trust.
Though Joe and I had never worked together, either with the Preston Historical Society or at the Fulwood Museum, this was about to change. On my reading a letter in the Lancashire Evening Post some three years ago about there being no War Memorial in Preston to the memory of the Preston Pals, I decided the this serious omission would be rectified, and with the help of like-minded people, including Joe, of course, offering special guidance and advice, next year will see the our plans come to fruition. Joe typically had already helped David Huggonson, a student at UCLAN, with his thesis on the Preston Pals, which will form part of a book to be published in 2012.
Our first formal committee meeting with Joe and three others in attendance was held in April 2010. The design for the Memorial, its location on Preston Railway Station, fundraising and myriad other matters were all discussed in detail. As you can imagine Joe was tremendously enthusiastic and contributed soundly to a very successful meeting. He was also a great help in ensuring that the elements within the design of Memorial should be as accurate as possible.
I was getting to know Joe better every meeting. His input, guidance and advice to me were invaluable. There were several visits to his home, which I likened to a very large filing cabinet with each room being a separate drawer – but he knew where everything was! I don’t envy Gillian and Ian sorting out all Joe’s many years’ collections, but I am sure the Lancashire Record Office and the Regimental Museum would be interested in some of the material.
Joe also managed to attend our second Committee meeting last October at which the design for the Memorial was finalised.
Earlier this year Joe was interviewed about his life by Emma Alsop, a Journalist student at UCLAN, as a project for her degree. She found him and his story fascinating. Needless to say he enjoyed nearly an hour chatting with a pretty young lady and even received a kiss for his thank you!
Eventually the Preston Pals War Memorial Trust was set up in April this year with Joe being a very special one of our Trustees. Sadly he was unable to attend the recent Trustees’ meeting but he was much in our thoughts. The actual lettering and carving of the Memorial, all done by hand, starts this Autumn and will be ready for erecting on Preston Railway Station in the Guild Year. You can be assured that Joe had played his part in helping to achieve the Trust’s objective.
In order to appreciate the sacrifice made by the Preston Pals, six of us travelled to France last April to visit Bazentin-le-Petit where 200 of the 250 Pals were killed in action on Sunday 23 July 1916.
Joe decided, despite his health problems, that he would join the party, on what would prove to be a memorable pilgrimage. Typically he wrote up his experience of the four days. Having travelled by road and ferry on the first day, we spent the next day visiting the usual battlefield tour sites, so as to put the Preston Pals action in context.
At the Thiepval Memorial, Joe noted the names of some of the Pals on the Memorial and a Poppy Wreath was then laid in their memory on the Stone of Remembrance. There was one disconcerting moment at Thiepval when we couldn’t find Joe, but then he was spotted some 200 yards in front of us. I swear his two sticks had rockets attached!
I had taken the precaution of bringing along a compact collapsible wheelchair, but Joe didn’t need it apart from using it once in the trenches of Newfoundland Park – not very successfully. Joe managed gallantly with his ‘magic sticks’.
I would like to finish this tribute to Joe by quoting some of his own words from his diary of our pilgrimage to France:
‘We drove along the main street of Bazentin and parked across from another Memorial. We then walked along the track behind the position of the 1000-yard trench manned by 480 rifles [including 250 Pals]. At the cross tracks a small knoll had a Calvary and here we [Joe] laid a Poppy Wreath in memory of the Pals and tied it to a bush’.
He finished with these moving words:

‘ANYTHING AFTER THIS DID NOT MATTER. WE HAD WALKED WHERE THE PRESTON PALS HAD WALKED’

JOE, WE WILL TRY TO WALK WHERE YOU HAVE WALKED, WE WILL REMEMBER YOU

Church Courts Database
The Borthwick Institute at the University of York holds the records of the Church Courts in the north of England. these records have now been analysed and a searchable database created. The result is that a mass of
information, from every parish in the north, can now be found very easily by local history researchers.

This searchable database is to be published online and there is to be an inaugural conference. The website with all details of the project and the conference and an application form is at:
www.york.ac.uk/inst/bihr/projects/Mellon/cphome.htm

The ideal Christmas or birthday present...

Marian Roberts, the much loved author of The Story of Winckley Square,Preston, was one of Preston’s leading local historians in the late twentieth century. Her book, published in 1988, has long been out of print. Before Marian died in February 2007, she gave her wholehearted approval to her ‘Story’ being republished. The new edition will be published under the auspices of Preston Historical Society in 2008, with both Alan Crosby and Aidan Turner-Bishop, assisting Andrew Mather in the research, editing and production of this new edition.

Click HERE to download the order form