Born in 1894 in England, his family immigrated to Australia when he was two years old. His father, Reverend Michael Smith, was stationed at various locations across the country, before settling at Double Bay.
Hodge-Smith completed his education at Scot's College, the Sydney Technical High School, the Sydney Technical College and the University of Sydney.
After school, he passed an exam to work in the Public Service and was offered a cadetship in the Geological Survey of New South Wales. In 1913, he became the assistant to G. W. Card, Curator of the Mining Museum.
Records from The Australian Museum Scientific Publications recognise the influence of G.W. Card and Hodge-Smith’s sister on his early career.
"It is interesting to note the influence of his sister, Mrs. C. D. Cotton, in his selection of mineralogy as his life's work. She was a research crystallographer before her marriage, and they were very close companions not only then but in later life also," the records read.
World War One interrupted the life of Hodge-Smith and he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. He saw active service in New Guinea where he suffered from blackwater fever and was invalided back to Sydney.
Once recovered, he returned to the Navy, rising to the rank of sub-lieutenant before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). In 1917, he served in France as a sapper under the 4th Field Company Australian Engineers. In 1918, he was discharged from service after suffering a broken leg due to a shell explosion.
After his military career, Hodge-Smith resumed at the Mining Museum before leaving in 1919 to work for the Australian Museum, being promoted in 1921 to Mineralogist.
During his early years at the museum, he carried out extensive fieldwork, particularly with the occurrence of zeolite minerals in New South Wales and mica in Central Australia.
He went on to discover a new mineral at Broken Hill, which he named Sturtite after Australian explorer, Charles Sturt. He is documented as having a 'chief love' for crystal measurement and drawing, reflecting the enthusiasm for crystallography he shared with his sister. He had a passion for meteorites, a topic he would research until his death.
Hodge-Smith had an interest in the study of gemmology and was, in part, responsible for the first gemmology courses available in Australia. He was the tutor for the gemmology course offered by the Federated Retail Jewellers Association (FRJA).
His contributions to gemmology in Australia are reflected in records from 1946 from The Australian Museum: "He was also very interested in gemmology and was unremitting in his efforts to instil into all concerned with the jewellery trade a strong regard for the scientific aspects of their calling.”
“The Gemmological Association of Australia, established within recent months, owes its origin, in part, to his pioneering work."
In addition to official duties, Hodge-Smith took on numerous roles across the scientific community.
He was a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the Royal Society of New South Wales, the Museums and Art Galleries Association of Australia and New Zealand, and the Australian Association of Scientific Workers.
Between 1935 to 1941, he took on the role of editor for the Australian National Research Council's publication Australian Science Abstracts. From 1925 until the time of his death, he was a teacher of mineralogy at the Sydney Technical College.
Thomas Hodge-Smith died in 1945, at the age of 51, survived by his wife and two daughters.
His death notice in the Queanbeyan Age described him as 'a world-renowned authority on meteorites and known very widely among Australian geologists, as a petrologist and mineralogist'.
Records from The Australian Museum reflect that Hodge-Smith would be remembered as a morphological crystallographer and as an authority on Australian meteorites.
READ EMAG