British South Africa Police

Regimental Sergeant-Major

(BSA Company Police); Served October 1889 to 31 August 1891

William Bodle was born on 5 July 1855 in Alfriston, Sussex. He began his military career with the Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment) before transferring first to the 17th Lancers and later to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons; a move that brought him to South Africa. He saw active service in the Basuto War of 1880–81 with the Cape Mounted Rifles, gaining the experience that would shape his later career in colonial policing.
In 1884, Bodle was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major of the Bechuanaland Border Police. Five years later, in October 1889, Cecil Rhodes engaged him to help raise and organise the force that would accompany the Pioneer Column into Mashonaland. He accordingly joined the newly formed British South Africa Company Police as its Regimental Sergeant Major. After being released during an early austerity drive, he entered commerce in Fort Salisbury. However, he soon returned to uniform with the Salisbury Horse and took part in the occupation of Matabeleland. He subsequently became commander of the newly created Matabeleland Mounted Police with the rank of Major.
Bodle later served in the Rhodesia Mounted Police during the Jameson Raid, was captured by Boer forces, and deported to England. Undeterred, he returned to Rhodesia and re‑attested into the British South Africa Police, Matabeleland Division, as second‑in‑command with the rank of Lieutenant‑Colonel, eventually succeeding Nicholson. He retired from the BSA Police in April 1909 and returned to England.
During World War I he commanded the Norfolk and Suffolk Territorial battalions and later the Labour Battalion, receiving the honorary rank of Brigadier‑General in August 1917. Bodle, who had been awarded the CMG in 1901, died in his native Alfriston on 9 July 1924.