Introduction

Biography

William was the son of coal min­er Will­iam Hodg­son. He fol­lowed his fa­ther’s ca­reer path ini­tial­ly, start­ing work in the coal mines at age 11.

After ac­cept­ing Christ, Hodg­son was a Me­tho­dist preach­er for a while, then in 1879, joined the Sal­va­tion Ar­my (SA) in Spen­ny­moor.

His first SA as­sign­ment was in Sea­ham Har­bour, with lat­er posts in Whit­by, North Shields, Lime­house, Chel­sea, Hex­ham, New­cast­le, Ply­mouth, and Bris­tol.

After serv­ing in the Sub­scrib­ers’ De­part­ment at SA In­ter­na­tion­al Head­quar­ters, he re­tired as an SA cap­tain in 1911.

A num­ber of his songs ap­peared in the SA’s War Cry. He was some­times called The Blood-Washed Coll­ier.