English writer William Hope Hodgson lived from 15 November 1877 to 19 April 1918. The son of the Reverend Samuel Hodgson, an Anglican clergyman, and Lissie Sarah Brown, Hodgson was born in the Essex hamlet of Blackmore End, close to the city of Braintree. He founded a School of Physical Culture in Blackburn, England, in 1899 when he was just 22 years old. Personal training exercise programs were available from the school. Police officers from the city of Blackburn were among his clients. ""The Goddess of Death"" was Hodgson's debut short fiction (1904). A Hindu statue taken from an Indian temple and placed in a tiny English town is the subject of a story that centers on a monument of Flora that was formerly located in Corporation Park, Blackburn. During the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918, Hodgson was killed by the immediate impact of an artillery round. On May 2, 1918, The Times published an obituary of him.