The name Hodgkinson was synonymous with the administration of the agricultural industry in the Bourne area for almost a century but this connection ended with the death of Cecil Hodgkinson, the last member of the family to participate in the family firm of auctioneers, valuers and estate agents and also a man of considerable business acumen and other talents, notably painting.

Cecil Thomas Hodgkinson was born at Billinborough in 1898 but his family moved to Bourne in 1921 when his father, Mr A W Hodgkinson, formed a branch of Hodgkinson and Son, estate agents, with offices in West Street, a business that had been in existence since 1885 and was then known as Norman Wright and Hodgkinson.

He was educated at Donington Grammar School, near Spalding, before joining the firm, subsequently taking a prominent role in public life. He won a seat on Bourne Urban District Council in 1938, being elected chairman seven years later (1945-46), and was elevated as an honorary alderman when he retired from the authority in 1974. He was  president of Lincolnshire Agricultural Valuers in 1947, being made an honorary member in 1977, was twice chairman of the Lincolnshire branch of the Chartered Auctioneers Institute, in 1951 and 1968, and became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a member of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

For many years he was chairman of the Deeping Agricultural Show and a committee member of the Lincolnshire Agricultural Show, playing a leading role in bringing the event to Bourne in 1939. At one time, he farmed more than 1,000 acres in management for the Richmond Trust and also administered the farms at Shatton Hall and Ghyll in Cumberland and Glen Farm at Greatford, near Bourne, as well as founding the Toft Lodge pedigree pig herd which, before being dispersed in 1940, produced many prize winners.

He was also interested in education, serving as a governor of Bourne Grammar School and the various council schools then in existence and was a trustee of the Bourne branch of the East Midlands Savings Bank, later to become the Trustee Savings Bank, or TSB as it is known today. Sport also played an important part in his life and he was associated with Bourne Cricket Club for almost half a century, first as a player and subsequently as chairman, a post he held for 28 years until retiring in 1960 when he donated the Hodgkinson Cup for which teams around the town still compete each year. He was also a former president and life member of Lincolnshire County Cricket Club. Other sporting interests included wildfowling, being a past president of the South Lincolnshire Wildfowlers' Association, shooting and game fishing.

But his main passion was painting in watercolours and he became an accomplished artist, exhibiting regularly during the last five years of his life at the Burghley Horse trials held at Stamford each autumn. He was also a former chairman of the Lincolnshire Artists' Society and one time member of the Peterborough and Boston Artists' Association.

Cecil Hodgkinson died on Wednesday 31st January 1979, at his home, Northbourne House, North Road, Bourne, aged 82, after suffering a stroke. During his final years. he had been looked after by his secretary, Miss Gwen Jessop, and his housekeeper, Miss Marjorie Brotherton. His wife, Ida, had died in 1977 when he donated a public seat in West Road in her memory and he also gave £1,000 to the Darby and Joan Club to provide day outings for members. Their only son, Mr A E S (Ted) Hodgkinson, died at Stamford in 1968 but their daughter, Miss Dorothy Hodgkinson, who was then living at Brighton, survived them.

The funeral was held at the Abbey Church, Bourne, on Wednesday 7th February, conducted by the vicar, the Rev Gordon Lanham, followed by cremation at Marholm, near Peterborough.

See also Bourne Cricket Club