John Lee Hodgson (c1825-1900)
1900 Obituary [1]
JOHN LEE HODGSON died at his residence, Hooley Range, Heaton Moor, Stockport, on January 31, 1900, at the age of seventy-five. He was born at Stanhope, in the county of Durham, and, like the late Mr. Daniel Adamson (Past-President of the Iron and Steel Institute), was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to the late Mr. Timothy Hackworth at the Shildon Works of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, where he remained until 1849.
From the Shildon Works he went to London to Messrs. Maudsley, Son, and Field, where he stayed until 1852, when he left for Stockport and joined the firm of Messrs. Robert Gordon & Co., Heaton Foundry, as head-draughtsman (Mr. Daniel Adamson being their manager). Here he stayed until the firm changed hands, the concern being taken over by Messrs. Emmerson & Murgatroyd.
He afterwards went to Chester to Messrs. J. Rigg, but only stayed with them a short time. Messrs. Emmerson & Murgatroyd having taken on some large contracts, he again entered their service, and from thence carried out some most important works, including the construction of a large hydraulic-lift graving-dock (Clark's patent) for Bombay, and a similar one, but smaller, for Malta. He also in the year 1875 constructed and erected, in conjunction with Mr. S. Duer, the Anderton hydraulic canal lift, for the Weaver Navigation, Northwich, Cheshire.
Mr. Hodgson remained with Messrs. Emmerson & Murgatroyd until they closed, and subsequently until his death he practised as a consulting engineer in Manchester and Stockport.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1873.