Henry Charles Dodman

Henry  was born in Stamford in 1900 and was still at school in 1911. He lived with his mother Eleanor who came from Louth, Lincolnshire, his father Charles Frederick and two siblings at 14 High Street, St. Martin’s. The family had a bootmaking business there.

Although underage, he enlisted in the infantry on 31 March 1915, becoming Private 271266 in the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment. His father, Charles Frederick, born 1875, enlisted a year later on 26 April 1916 as Sapper 125629 in the Royal Engineers. They both served in France and Belgium and Henry was wounded twice, in 1916 and again in 1918. Father and son were demobbed in the same week of February 1919 and returned to live at home. Henry Charles died in Birmingham in 1980.

His father Charles Frederick Dodman was one of St. Martin’s churchwardens in the 1930s and was still in the bootmaking business at 14 High Street St Martins in 1950. He died in Stamford in 1970.