Hodson, MAJOR WILLIAM STEPHEN RAIKES, English soldier, usually known as Hodson of Hodson's Horse, was born at Maisemore Court, near Gloucester, on 19th March 1821. Choosing the life of a soldier, he joined the Indian army in 1845, and immediately got his first experience of warfare in the battles of the first Sikh war. In 1847 he was appointed second in command of the Punjab corps of Guides, a body of irregular native troops raised for the protection of the north-west frontiers of India against the marauding hill-tribes. From 1849 to 1852 Hodson was employed in the work of civil government in the Punjab. Then, being made commandant of the Guides corps, he did excellent service on the turbulent frontier. But in 1856 he was deprived of his command on account of irregularities in the regimental accounts and of his unjust treatment of the troops and natives under his authority. In the crisis of the Mutiny, however, he was appointed head of the intelligence department in the army engaged before Delhi, and was commissioned to raise a new regiment of irregular cavalry, which became known as Hodson's Horse. With this body of men Hodson took part in the siege of Delhi and in the subsequent operations down to the siege of Lucknow. After the fall of Delhi Hodson discovered the Mogul sovereign and his sons; these last he shot dead with his own hand at the time of capture. He himself was shot on 11th March 1858, during the assault on a royal palace in Lucknow, and died on the following day. As a leader of irregular native soldiery, Hodson won unqualified praise for his boldness and skill; his wild troopers were warmly attached to him. But he seems to have been of an imperious temper, which sometimes led him to commit acts of violence and injustice. In money matters he was certainly irregular; and he has been accused of 'looting' in war.
See Rev. G. Hodson's Hodson of Hodson's Horse (4th ed. 1883); and compare R. Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence (especially appendix to vol. ii.; 6th ed. 1885), and T. R. E. Holmes's Four Famous Soldiers (1889), though none of the three is absolutely satisfactory in his estimate of Hodson's character.