Devon Cricket Board - Returning to Civvy Street after the war

Returning to Civvy Street after the war

FOR an active sportsman like Percy Hodge, the war brought a premature end to his varied career,
Hodge, who was not quite 30 when he enlisted in 1914, played as much sport as he could as a young man.
When he came back from a prisoner of war camp in late 1918 with only one leg, there was no chance of playing serious sport again.
As a member of St Leonard’s Church in Newton Abbot, where he was a churchwarden, Hodge was the very model of Edwardian muscular Christianity.
Young Percy played cricket for Newton Town CC, South Devon CC and by 1911 was being picked to play for Devon.
Winters brought a switch to the rugby field next door to South Devon CC’s ground where the Newton Abbot All Whites then played.
Hodge had broken into the 1st XV aged 15 – it couldn’t happen now – and when war broke out was just about to start his eighth season as captain.
He had been a regular in the Devon county XV for five seasons having previously played for the East Midlands while turning out for Northampton.
As Percy didn’t get married until he retired from running his own sport shop in 1946, there was no one to stop him following indoor sporting pursuits between rugby and cricket matches, such as skittles and table-tennis.
Hodge (pictured, left attending a VE Day street party in 1945, went to France early in the war to fight with a regiment defending the French coast from a German push.
The badly wounded Hodge was taken prisoner by the Germans, who amputated is shattered right leg.
Surprisingly, Hodge bore no malice towards his captors – quite the reverse in fact.
“It was typical of the man he had nothing but praise for the way he was treated by his enemies,” said the Mid-Devon Advertiser correspondent in his report of Hodge’s funeral.
Hodge spent nearly six months in a London hospital after the war recuperating from his wounds,
He returned to Newton Abbot, opened Percy Hodge Sports in his father’s old bakery and threw himself into the sporting and commercial life of the town.
“He returned from the war crippled in body but not in mind and did not allow his physical handicap to restrict his activities,” said the Advertiser’s un-named correspondent.
“He entered with zest into many sporting organisations, associating himself with the administrative side as he was unable to take a more active part.”
For nearly 40 years Percy Hodge filled a variety of offices ranging from town councillor to chairman of Newton Abbot RFC and the YMCA to the Loyal Order of Moose.
From time to time he could be found with the boys boarding at Newton College on the outskirts of town, passing on rugby tips and refereeing the odd game despite his handicap.
He died suddenly in 1954 aged 69. Right to the end he loved his sport. The Saturday before he died he had been on the touchline at Newton Abbot RFC cheering on the All Whites.
Richard Thornton was another Devon cricketer who went off to war and returned unscathed. Like many of his class he entered the clergy after leaving university.
R T Thornton won an Oxford Blue in 1874 as a soccer player. In those days football was the term used to describe the oval-ball code.
He was a decent cricketer too who played for Sidmouth and captained Devon when his parish duties allowed between 1873-1882.
Thornton came from a land-owning family and clearly wasn’t in the Church of England for the stipend!
After leaving Devon he played cricket for Kent (1881-1899) and toured the United States and Portugal with Gentlemen’s XIs.
At the age of 61 Thornton resigned from the church to go to war. A former chaplain to the Royal West Kent Regiment, he joined the French Red Cross as an ambulance driver.
Thornton survived the war and retired to Eastbourne, where he became mayor . He died in 1928.

DCB Ltd, University of Exeter Sports Hall, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QN Company Registration Number: 7024773