Brian Arthur Hodgson

The children and grandchildren of Brian Arthur Hodgson are proud to celebrate his life but heartbroken to announce that he has “shuffled off this mortal coil”, “…ceased to be, expired and gone to meet his maker…”

His sense of humour, loyalty, rightness and fairness lives on in his children Kim and Kerry and his grandchildren Ethan, Aaron and Nicole.

We are grateful for the love and support shown to Dad in his last days by Kerry’s wife Janet and mother-in-law Joan who loved him as their own. Also the love, care and concern of our mother/grandmother Dhanya Walbank, her husband David, her brother Pat Corkery and niece Jeannine Corkery, proving that divorce may be final in the eyes of the law but family goes on forever. Dad is also survived by his sister Shelia Anderson and family in England and his great friend Bob Bisby. Friends and extended family too numerous to mention also join us in celebrating his incredible life and share our sadness that, in this form at least, it has come to an end.

Dad’s journey began on a Friday in 1932 during lilac time. His life spanned technological advances that, as a boy in Hendon NW London watching the Smithy at work in his shop on the Edgware Road, he never could have imagined. Sending emails on his iPad (an 80th birthday present from his children) and even telephone banking would have seemed like something out of a bad B movie. Going to the pictures was a Saturday ritual as a kid that grew to a lifelong love of watching, analyzing and researching movies, actors and directors. His enormous library of VHS tapes and DVDs is a testament to one of his favourite pastimes but pales in comparison to his library of books. From childhood, books were a constant companion for entertainment, research, knowledge and escapism.

Growing up in London during the war meant he was evacuated, first with his brother Denis, to Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Evacuated for their safety, the horrific bombing of Coventry 5 miles away, made it clear that one place was hardly better than the other as far as safety from bombing was concerned and they returned home to London. Evacuated again 4 years later with his younger sister Sheila, this time near Manchester, his feelings were not of safety but rejection. Although he had pleasant memories of his time in the country, being sent away twice had a lasting effect on him and probably contributed to his ease of leaving home at a young age and seeing the world.

Travel was almost a compulsion and factored into every decision he made. Solitary travel being most favoured and beginning with a holiday he took on his own to Scotland at age 14. He had a strong connection to Scotland and was proud of his Scottish heritage. It was on this trip that he had the Thistles of Scotland emblem tattooed on his forearm. Something he regretted later in life but to his children and grandchildren was such a unique part of him that it became a treasured symbol.

Joining the Royal Air Force at 17 and training with the RAF Police he spent the early 1950s stationed in Egypt, Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Although the reality of the job was far different from the idealized poster that inspired his choice, he was able to travel, had many exciting adventures and was the start of his lifelong love of motorcycles. Joining the Kenya Police in 1954, spending time in Uganda and also traveling around East and South Africa he had many more adventures, stories of which entertained us all and have been meticulously recorded for future generations.

Dad eventually returned to England and joined the City of London Police to earn money for his next adventure, which was to travel to Australia via Canada, the States, Hawaii, Japan, Fiji and New Zealand.

He sailed to Canada in July of 1957 for the first leg of his adventure. Intending to join the RCMP he found the wait too long so joined the City of Ottawa Police then the RCAF Police for a 3 year term, giving him plenty of time to travel and save for his big trip. Stationed first in Gander then St Hubert, Quebec he met Pam Corkery (now Dhanya Wallbank) who was a frequent visitor to the pool where Dad was a lifeguard and the canteen where they sat and talked for hours. Although he would have preferred a warmer climate, he loved Canada and decided to reenlist with the RCAF Police for a 5 year term. Transferred to Beausejour MB he realized he also loved the girl he left behind so returned to marry her in June 1962. Transferred to a Special Investigation Unit they moved to London ON where Kim made them a family in Oct 1963.

His new family meant the world to him, although being solitary by nature living with the noise and mess of others was challenging for him. Released from the RCAF in 1965 he joined the City of London (Ontario) Police then worked for Immigration in Toronto. In January 1966 Dad started with Indian Affairs and we moved to Sioux Lookout in NW Ontario where Kerry joined the family in Sept 1968. Dad stayed with Indian Affairs (as it was then called) until he retired in 1987 but the family continued to move: Geraldton, Toronto, Thunder Bay, back to Sioux Lookout then (without Kim) to Halifax.

Dad loved Halifax, walking everywhere he needed to go and always taking the stairs two at a time until finally slowing down the last few years. Birthday and family dinners at The King’s Palace became a long-standing tradition, not for the food but because he could walk there (and I suspect the name appealed to him).

After retirement, which he was joyfully able to take at age 55, he did some government consulting work, delved seriously into photography and enjoyed many motorcycle trips with his great friend Bob who shared his appreciation of motorcycles, fine wine and Monty Python throughout their 40+ year friendship. He traveled to visit Kim and Ethan in their various far-flung locations, researched the family tree and visited family in England via Iceland and other European countries.

Later in retirement, Dad lived quietly, happily and neatly, surrounded by his books and movies, following European football and rugby. Happy for others to travel to him for visits and equally happy to live with the freedom to do as he pleased, when he pleased. Proud of his children and grandchildren he happily shared his memories with those who were interested. He often quoted Thomas Moore, “Fond memory brings the light of other days around me” and memories are what we will now cherish most.

Brian Arthur Hodgson was a loyal and dutiful son, brother, uncle, husband, father, grandfather and friend. His sense of adventure and thirst for knowledge was enviable. His sense of humour and the ridiculous means that we will never be able to see Groucho glasses, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers or Wallace and Gromit without thinking of him. We are so grateful to have shared part of his journey with him and we will miss him to the end of our days.