According to Cunard and Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, James Hodder was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, around 1877, but nothing further is known about his life or family.
He was a professional seaman in the British Mercantile Marine and in 1915, he lodged at 59, Denison Street, near the centre of Liverpool, in Lancashire, England.
He engaged as a fireman in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania, at Liverpool, on the 12th April 1915, at a monthly rate of pay of £6-10s.-0d. (£6.50p.), £1-0s-0d., of which was advanced to him at the time. His previous ship had been the S.S. Carlton.
He reported for duty at 8 a.m. on the 17th April 1915, in time for the liner’s last ever departure from the River Mersey and having completed the crossing to New York without mishap, James Hodder was still serving as a fireman on the early afternoon of the 1st May, as the Lusitania left New York on the start of her return voyage to Liverpool. Six days into that voyage, however, on the afternoon of the 7th May, he was killed, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, the Lusitania was within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about fourteen
hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port. Fireman Hodder was aged 38 years at the time.
His body was never found and identified afterwards and as such, he has no known grave. As a consequence, he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the Mercantile Marine, at Tower Hill, in London.
In August 1915, the balance of pay owed to him in respect of his service on the Lusitania’s last voyage was sent to his family by Cunard. This was reckoned to be from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May - 24 hours after the liner had been sunk.
Despite his place of birth, James Hodder does not appear on the memorial to the dead of the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine of the Great War, in Newfoundland Park at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme, in France. This may be because he was not serving on a Newfoundland vessel at the time he was killed.
Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 11th January 2024.