Dick Hodgson

Richard “Dick” Hodgson came from a famous Blackburn swimming family. His father, also Richard, was the first man in Blackburn to swim 60 yards in 60 seconds. Dick’s older brother John played water polo for Manchester Osborne, and the Wigan, and Everton clubs, while another brother, Fred, was the chief constable of Salford and was also a notable water polo player. Three of their sisters were also all local swimming champions. Strangely, Hodgson’s mother did not have her first swimming lesson until the age of 62, while he started playing water polo at the age of 15.

Hodgson enjoyed a long career in water polo, either as a player, coach or an official, but that could have all been so very different. In 1920 he twice avoided tragedy in his job as a sawyer when, on two separate occasions, he severed all, or part of, two fingers and a thumb. A Lancashire county player at the time, he was sidelined for a large part of the season but eventually made a successful return and went on to play for England 12 times, captaining the side on five occasions. Hodgson also made three appearances for Great Britain at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics.

Hodgson was the captain of the Blackburn Amateur Swimming Cub for many years and served on the committee of the Lancashire Water Polo Association and, in 1922, was appointed their president. He became chief coach to the Northern Counties water polo team in 1947.