He joined the Consular Service, working at the consulate in Algiers from 1901 to 1904 and becoming vice-consulatMarseille in 1904. In 1906, he was appointed commercial agent at Vladivostok and given the rank of vice-consul two years later and consul in 1911. He stayed in Vladivostok until 1919, when he was moved to Omsk as acting high commissioner to the anti-Bolshevik government. In November 1919, he was appointed commercial counsellor in Moscow. He married a Russian woman, Olga Bellavina, in 1920 and was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours.[1] He became Chargé d'affaires in 1924 following British official recognition of the communist government, but was recalled to Britain with the rest of the British diplomatic mission in 1927. He had been appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1925.
In 1928, he was appointed ministertoAlbania. He retired in August 1936, but in December 1937 returned to the Foreign Office as British agent to General Franco's government in Burgos, Spain. In December 1938, he was appointed chargé d'affaires, but was surprisingly not appointed ambassador to Spain when full diplomatic relations were established in April 1939, perhaps because of his wife having been born in Russia. Instead, Sir Samuel Hoare was appointed ambassador. Once again retiring, Hodgson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG).
Sir Samuel Hoare, Viscount Templewood, Ambassador on Special Mission, Collins ed. (1946), 320 pages. No ISBN registration as it was printed before 1970. Edited in Spanish translation by Sedmay ed. Madrid (1977).
Manuel Ros Agudo. La guerra secreta de Franco, (1939–1945). 410 pages. In Spanish. edit. Editorial Critica, (2002), ISBN84-8432-383-8.
