A Bible Found in the Trenches in the First World War has Been Traced 92 Years Later to a New Zealand Soldier

OAKHAM, England, August 16, 2010 - After serving in the First World War, Herbert Hodgson
(1893-1974) became the acclaimed printer of the rare 1926 edition of Lawrence
of Arabia's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In his memoirs - entitled Impressions of
War and just published by Martlet Books - Hodgson describes how he fell into
a shell hole in April 1918 during an attack:

'My hand grasped something in the mud. It was a book. I shoved
it in my pocket, got up and carried on. A shell landed nearby and the blast
knocked me out. I was picked up by a stretcher party and carried back to the
line. When I came to I remembered the book. It was a Bible, encrusted with
mud. There was no name inside it but the army service number 34816 had been
written across the top outer edges of the pages.'

That Bible is currently in the possession of Bernard Hodgson,
Herbert Hodgson's second son. Ninety-two years later, the original owner of
the Bible has been traced to Private Richard Cook of the Otago Regiment of
the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who died aged 26 of wounds on 8 October
1917 and is buried in Étaples Military Cemetery in France.

This October, on the anniversary of Richard Cook's death,
relatives of both Richard Cook and Herbert Hodgson will carry out a
commemorative ceremony at his grave in honour of the two great soldiers.

Herbert Hodgson's family will generously donate the Bible to
the National Army Museum in Waiouru in New Zealand at another ceremony in
March 2011.

Major Ian Passingham, author of Pillars of Fire: The Battle of
Messines Ridge 1917, and The German Offensives of 1918: The Last Desperate
Gamble, describes Impressions of War as 'a must-read for anyone wishing to
put the First World War into its proper perspective.'

Professor Peter Simkins, former Senior Historian of the
Imperial War Museum, writes: 'Herbert Hodgson's Impressions of War provides
the reader with a splendid example of the extraordinary insights which even a
private soldier from a working-class background was able to offer concerning
life, death and conditions on the Western Front.'

See www.martlet-books.co.uk/impressions-of-war.htm for details.

From Geoffrey M. Hodgson, g.m.hodgson@herts.ac.uk

From Geoffrey M. Hodgson, g.m.hodgson at herts.ac.uk, Martlet Books, 8 Withers Close, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6GG, +(33)475-64-67-86