Hodgson was the fourth and youngest child of Henry Bernard Hodgson, the Bishop of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich. He entered into The School House of Durham School in September 1905 on a King's Scholarship. He steered in the second crew in 1907; was in the XI, 1910, 1911; and in the XV, 1910. He won the Steeplechase in 1909 and 1911. He left Durham in July 1911, with Gallipoli war poet and friend Nowell Oxland, for Oxford University where he was an exhibitioner of Christ Church. He obtained a first class degree in Classical Moderations in March 1913 and decided to stay and do Greats.