AAE position: Cartographer, sketch artist

Hodgeman was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in the mid-1880s. A skilled artist, he practised as a draftsman for some five years in the South Australian government, and for four years he was an articled architect.

His name — literally — has become synonymous with the AAE’s built heritage — the huts of Cape Denison. Plans for the Living Quarters and other structures of the AAE carry his neat signature. Mawson entrusted him with providing detailed drawings of the structures, which proved valuable in the difficult conditions in which the huts were erected in Antarctica.

Hodgeman’s skills were also evident in many of the diagrams and charts to be found in publications arising out of the AAE. He took part in several sledging journeys and meticulously recorded sledging routes, coastlines and topography for posterity.

He was one of the six men who remained behind for a second year to support the missing Far Eastern sledging party. Throughout the year he continued to refine his charts and support the work of Madigan in recording Cape Denison’s weather, as well as becoming the group’s specialist dessert chef.

Hodgeman died in England in 1964.