Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important group of Orders and Medals awarded to Admiral Sir Michael Hodges, K.C.B., C.M.G., M.V.O., Royal Navy, who commanded one of Powerful’s 4.7-inch Naval guns in the defence of Ladysmith, and was later Chief of Staff to Admiral Sir Charles Madden

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s neck badge and breast star, silver, gilt and enamels; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘914’, enamel flaked on top arm; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Ladysmith (Lieut: M. H. Hodges, R.N. H.M.S. Powerful) large impressed naming; 1914-15 Star (Capt. M. H. Hodges, M.V.O. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Commre. 2 Cl. M. H. Hodges, R.N.); Defence and War Medals; Coronation 1902, silver; Coronation 1911; Legion of Honour, 4th class breast badge in gold and enamels; Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (Unsuccessful) (Commander M. H. Hodges, R.N. 2nd Oct. 1904) complete with bronze ribbon buckle, generally good very fine (15) £6000-8000

Ex Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris Collection 1997.

Michael Henry Hodges was born on 29 September 1874, and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet aboard the Training Ship Britannia on 15 July 1887. On passing out of Britannia he obtained three 2nd Class Certificates and two 3rd Class Certificates, thus gaining 7 months seniority. He joined H.M.S. Swiftsure in November 1889 and Warspite in June 1890, having been promoted to Midshipman on 15 December 1889. He served in this rank aboard Boscawen where he was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant on 14 October 1893, and later confirmed in this rank with the same seniority. He subsequently served aboard Excellent, Tribune and Gleaner, and was appointed to the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert in July 1895 and promoted to Lieutenant on 28 August 1895.

In the rank of Lieutenant he served aboard Volage and Powerful. During service in the latter vessel he was landed in South Africa as a member of the ship’s Naval Brigade sent to defend the town of Ladysmith, and was mentioned in Captain H. Lambton’s Despatch of 11 January 1900, as ‘being in Command of a 4.7 inch gun at Cove Redoubt and Junction Hill and fought it with great skill and coolness, under, at times, a very accurate and plunging crossfire from the enemy’s guns of much heavier calibre, during the first fortnight of the siege'. He was also mentioned in General Sir George White’s Despatch of 2 December 1899, ‘The following Naval Officers have been brought to notice by General Officers Commanding or Officers Commanding units... Lieutenant M. Hodges, R.N...... to be noted for early promotion to Commander. In recognition of his services in South Africa Hodges was, in July 1900, granted the Freedom of the Borough of Dorchester, and presented with binoculars and a silver inkstand. He was also awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Testimonial on Vellum, as Lieutenant of Powerful, 19 May 1899, for jumping overboard in Manilla Bay, and with assistance saving a seaman who had fallen from the ship.

He subsequently held command of Flint and Crane, and was 1st Lieutenant of Caledonia. He was promoted to Commander on 26 June 1902 and in connection with the Coronation Fleet Review was appointed to Enchantress. He next joined President, for R.N. College Greenwich, Hermes and Prince George. Whilst in Hermes, he was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society for gallantly attempting to save Commander Melvill, who was drowned at Portland on 2 October 1904, on a very dark night, with a rough sea on. He returned to College for Senior Officer’s Gunnery Course in June 1905, and then took command of Sappho. He received the thanks of the Colonial Office for assistance rendered by Sappho during the riots in British Guyana in 1905-06, and was specially promoted to Captain on 31 December 1908, in recognition of services rendered during the disturbances at Iquique.

He was appointed to command Doris in July 1910 and Cornwall in December 1911, and before the outbreak of the Great War was appointed Naval Attaché in Paris. He was made M.V.O. on the occasion of the King’s Visit to Paris in April 1914, and for his services as Naval Attaché received the Legion of Honour from the French Government. He also received the thanks of the War Office for his services while acting for the Military Attaché in connection with the purchase of aeronautical material in France.

Although anxious to return to duty afloat there was no Command to which he could be appointed immediately on leaving Paris, and for a time his services were utilised as Divisional Naval Transport Officer at Salonika. Then, a week after the battle of Jutland, he was appointed to command Indomitable, in the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron, Grand Fleet. From her he was transferred in 1917 to the new battle cruiser Renown, and in 1918 he was selected to be Chief of Staff to Admiral Sir Charles Madden, Second in Command of the Grand Fleet, in which post he held rank as Commodore 2nd Class. On the dispersal of the Grand Fleet in 1919 and the appointment of Sir Charles Madden as Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, Hodges accompanied him to the Queen Elizabeth as Chief of Staff, and was promoted to Commodore 1st Class.

For his services during the Great War Hodges was mentioned in despatches, created C.B. and C.M.G., both in 1919, and awarded the Order of St Anne of Russia, 2nd class (1916), and the Japanese Rising Sun, 3rd class (1917).

In the spring of 1920 he became Rear-Admiral Commanding the Destroyer Flotillas of the Atlantic Fleet and in 1923 he was appointed Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, and while in this post was promoted to Vice-Admiral. Early in 1925 he hoisted his flag in the Iron Duke as Second in Command on the Mediterranean Station, transferring it later to the Barham. In this Command he served for the usual two years and on returning home was appointed Second Sea Lord. He held this post until 1930 and was meanwhile promoted to Admiral in 1929. From the Admiralty he went direct to be Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet with his flag in Nelson. Unfortunately an attack of pleurisy in the course of the next year caused him to relinquish his command before his time and he retired in 1932. He was re-employed during the 1939-45 war in shore appointments as Resident Naval Officer at Folkestone and Teignmouth, and as Flag Officer in Charge, Trinidad, West Indies. Admiral Hodges, who had been advanced to K.C.B. in 1925, died at his home in London on 3 November 1951.