Mary Hodgson

Mary Hodgson (1876 - December 1962) was the nurse (or nanny) who looked after the Llewelyn Davies boys, the five boys who inspired the characters of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. It was she who took them for outings in Kensington Gardens, where George and Jack befriended J. M. Barrie.

Hodgson was born between October and December 1876 in Kirkby Lonsdale. She died at the end of 1962 in Leeds, Yorkshire.

Sylvia Llewelyn Davies' will expressed her desire that Hodgson continue to care for the boys. She continued to live with them (ages ranging from 7 to 17 at the time of their mother's death) and managed the household. As such she became a surrogate mother to the boys, especially the younger ones. With "Uncle Jim" Barrie – whom she did not get along with – serving as surrogate father (and playmate), this was difficult, but she was devoted to them and recognized that Barrie's support (both financial and emotional) was good for them.

In 1917, Jack brought his new wife Gerrie home, and Barrie told them they could have the Davies house, where Hodgson still lived with Michael and Nico. This put the two women in conflict over control of the household, and Hodgson resigned in protest. Recognizing how fond of her the boys were, Barrie made an effort to persuade her to return, but she refused.

Portrayals
She has not been particularly well-served by the various dramatic works to come out of her relationship to the Davies family and to Barrie. In Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, Barrie made the family nurse a dog Nana, and his origin for the Lost Boys – children who fall out of their prams and go unclaimed – presented the women in her profession unfavorably.

In the semi-fictional biopic Finding Neverland she is written out of the story altogether, with the parts she might have contributed to the drama – particularly as a critic of Barrie – given to Sylvia's mother Emma du Maurier.

She was portrayed by Anna Cropper in the 1978 BBC docudrama, The Lost Boys, where her role in raising the Davies boys is given better due.