Arthur Hodgson

Australian politician

the Australian rules footballer

NOTOC
Sir Arthur Hodgson KCMG (29 June 1818 – 24 December 1902) was an Australian squatter and politician.

Hodgson was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England; the second son of the Rev. Edward Hodgson and his third wife Charlotte, daughter of Francis William Pemberton of Bombay, India. Hodgson was educated at Eton from 1828 to 1833 and then entered the Royal Navy and was a midshipman from 1833 to 1837 on HMS Canopus on the China station. In 1837–38 he studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

In 1839 Hodgson moved to Australia, arriving in Sydney, and soon leased Cashiobury run in the New England district. In July 1840, he sought new land further north in the Moreton Bay district (as it was then known, now called Queensland) based on advice from Patrick Leslie. With a partner, Gilbert Eliott, and his brother, Christopher Pemberton Hodgson, Arthur Hodgson squatted Eton Vale, the second pastoral run on the Darling Downs in September 1840. In the 1846 publication, Reminiscences of Australia with Hints on the Squatters' Life, Hodgson's brother describes the conflict involved in the taking of land ownership from Aboriginal Australians. They named this property Etonvale after Eton College, the illustrious school they both attended in England. The land they marked out was in the possession of the Barunggam people and the book recorded in some detail their "constant skirmishes with the natives" to wrest control of the area, and how "so many hundreds of these poor creatures have been sacrificed". The Hodgson brothers took an active role in the killings. The homestead was decorated with "swords, guns and all around are displayed spears, boomerangs dillies and calabashes, the spoil of a hard fought battle or a surprised camp of natives." In 1842 Arthur Hodgson married the daughter of Sir James Dowling, Chief Justice of New South Wales, which helped advance his position there. In 1856–61 he became general superintendent of the Australian Agricultural Company. Hodgson represented Clarence and Darling Downs in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1858 and Newcastle in 1859. After the separation of Queensland, he was elected to its Legislative Assembly representing Warrego. Hodgson was minister for public works in the Mackenzie ministry from September to November 1868 and colonial secretary in the Lilley ministry from January to November 1869. Lady Hodgson died on 2 May 1902, in her 81st year. Hodgson died later that year, at Clopton House on 24 December 1902

The small township of Hodgson in the Maranoa Region, the locality of Hodgson Vale in the Toowoomba Region, and Hodgson Creek in the Toowoomba Region are named in his honour.