b. 22/09/1877 Winterbourne Dauncey, Wiltshire. d. 1st Q 1962 Norton, Somerset.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 21/11/1913 Dunkerton Colliery, Somerset.
John, the second eldest of twelve children, was born on 22nd September 1877 in Winterbourne Dauncey, Wiltshire, to John Robert and Emily Lodge (nee Shearing). Most of his childhood was spent in Wiltshire, with the majority of his younger siblings being born in Amesbury. Tragically two of his younger brothers would die before reaching the age of 4. John married Mary Golledge on 8th February 1897 in Clutton, Somerset, at the age of 19, and they had three sons, John, George and Sidney. By this time, John was already working down the mines as a hewer, alongside his brother at Dunkerton Colliery. Following the incident at Dunkerton in November 1913, tragedy struck John when his wife Mary died suddenly in 1914, aged 43. John soon re-married, however, to Lily Beating in Bath later that year. John and Lily (known as Lettie) had a daughter, Edith Mary, the following year, not long before John and his brother Edward travelled to London to receive their Edward Medals from King George V. John remained in the mining industry following his investiture and living in Somerset. Sadly, one of his sons, Sidney, pre-deceased him in 1960. John died in Norton, Somerset, aged 84, in the early months of 1962. His wife passed away three years later.
EM CITATION:
On the 21st November, 1913, John and Edward Lodge, two brothers, employed in the Dunkerton Colliery, had drilled and charged eight shot holes in the face of a stone drift, the fuse in each succeeding hole being four inches longer than that in the preceding one. The tools were then collected and carried some distance back, and Edward Lodge returned to light up the fuses. When he had lighted seven of the fuses, a charge in one of the holes exploded. John Lodge immediately went into the face and finding Edward lying on the floor conscious, but with the right thigh broken, dragged him away, though other charges were still exploding, thus, in all probability, saving his life. He himself was injured in the head from stones projected by sbots that went off during the rescue, and his action was courageous to the highest degree. These Medals were presented by His Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace on the 12th July, 1915.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
