Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson was born in Bovey Tracey, Devonshire, in 1881. He was the eldest son of Algernon Hodson and Sarah Wienholt. Hodson spent the years 1900-2 sheep farming in central Queensland and came to South Africa as a volunteer with the Australian contingent for the South African War. By the time he arrived however, the war had ended and Hodson, deciding to stay in the country, was employed in a number of temporary jobs (among them working down the Treasury Mine in Johannesburg and road-building with the Pretoria Public Works Department). In 1904 he was offered a commission in the Bechuanaland Protectorate Police and the photographs in this album date from this time. His first trip into the Kalahari on hut tax collection duty entailed a journey from Gabarones to Lehututu via Kokong on which he set out on August 15 1904. A second trek, from Lehututu to Oghe in the ‘Melon Country’ was undertaken in October of that year in the company of a trader named Leroux (see Y30549A/5). Early in 1905 Hodson was sent to relieve the officer in charge of Fort Gabarones who had been taken ill and on April 27 1905 he received orders from Resident Commissioner Ralph Williams to investigate the Damara refugee situation at Lehututu.

The oppressive nature of German rule in South West Africa, together with the great rinderpest epidemic of 1896-7 which had largely destroyed the economic foundations of the Herero (Damara) peoples, led to the rebellion in 1904. The German response was a military campaign under the command of Lother von Trotha which followed a pattern of encirclement and extermination. Armed refugees crossed the border into Bechuanaland and Hodson’s job was to isolate these groups (many of whom were suffering from smallpox), disarm them and prevent an act of aggression against Germany on Britain’s part. The Herero under Samuel Maherero were allowed to settle near Tsau in 1905 and other groups settled near Nokaheng a year or so later.

On leaving Bechuanaland, Hodson spent the years 1912-26 in various military and consular posts in Somaliland and Abyssinia. He was Governor of the Falkland Islands 1926-30, of Sierra Leone 1930-4 and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast 1934-41.