John Joseph Ridley Dodds

John Joseph Ridley Dodds was a Freemason and member of Lodge Temperance 2557 who served in the 2nd World War. A letter to the Provincial Grand Secretary of Northumberland from WBro John Sowerby, Secretary, and dated 7th November 1947 attached a list of the names and service of forty three Brethren and Brother John is shown as a being in the Home Guard.

At the Lodge Temperance 2557 meeting held at the Royal Assembly Rooms, Westgate Road, on 17th June 1940, John was proposed by Bro George Shaw and seconded by Bro George Gibson as a fit and proper person to be made a Freemason.

He was a 27 year Clerk residing at 45, Laburnum Street, Birtley, Co. Durham. A successful ballot was held on 20th 16th September 1940 and he was initiated into the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry on 17th February 1941. He was passed to the second or Fellowcraft degree on 21st April 1941 and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on 18th August 1941.

We have obtained John’s Home Guard service record which shows he was a costs clerk when he volunteered on 30th March 1942 for the 2nd Battalion, Headquarters Company, Durham Home Guard as a Private Service No 3230. The record also shows he was briefly with the Birtley Co. Unit, Home Guard from August to December 1940.

He was promoted to Corporal on 28th July 1942 and again on 7th September 1943 to Quarter Master Sergeant. He was discharged on 31st December 1945 at the disbandment of the Home Guard.

John was born on 19th January 1913 in Cornsay Colliery, Co. Durham to Benjamin and Dorothy Dodds. His father, Benjamin was a miner from a mining family working in the coke works at Cornsay Colliery. Most of the coal from the pit was turned into coke in over 270 coke ovens that once stood nearby. The pit also produced fireclay, which was used to make bricks, tiles and sewage pipes. Benjamin’s paternal grandfather Michael Dodds was tragically killed in an accident at the pit in 1877, the same year Benjamin was born from a fall of stones while drawing a jud (a depth of coal in the coal face that falls after being undercut). His mother Dorothy Ridley was born in Cornsay Village where her father was a dairy farmer. They married there in 1903 and had at least three children:

  • Jane Evelyn (29/12/1903 – 02/1994)
  • Annie (1905 – 1905)
  • John Joseph Ridley ( 19/01/1913 – 07/1999)

In the 1939 register taken on 29th September 1939 John is single and living with his father at 43, Laburnum Street, Chester Le Street, Co. Durham and is working as a costs clerk. Shortly after, in 1942 John married Edith Frances Punton in Chester Le Street, a trained fever staff nurse. They had at least two children.

John passed away in July 1999 aged 86 and his wife Edith in 2003 aged 86 both in Gateshead.