The Great War: N–Z · Story 26

Evelyn Wood (1886-1918)

Evelyn Wood had been born in Raunds in 1886, the son of Edward, a bricklayer from Little Addington, and his wife, Ann. It would seem an unusual name for a boy but when you look through the military records you discover many men with the same name, even without exploring other surnames. It may be that these men were named in honour of Sir Evelyn Wood who won the Victoria Cross in 1858 and was a senior officer in the Boer War. He also championed the use of female nurses, against the views of many of his colleagues. Unfortunately, he became increasingly deaf and disorganised.

Our Evelyn Wood was baptised in Raunds Parish Church on March 21st 1886. By 1891 Edward and Ann had six children: Celia (12), Beatrice (10), William (9), Lily (7), Evelyn (5) and Ernest (3). Edward was still a bricklayer and they were living in Litchfield Yard In Raunds. By 1901 Edward had become a Bricklayer’s Foreman and they had moved to Mapletoft Street and five children had been added to the family; Walter (10), Frances (8), Ralph (7), Emily (4) and Elsie (3). Edward died in 1909 and, in the 1911 Census, Ann, now a 36-year-old widow, was living at 11 Wellington Street and we see (though crossed out) that she had had 13 children but four had already died. Only four children were still at home and they were all working in the shoe trade.

Two of the sons had joined the Territorials, formerly the Rutland and Northamptonshire Militia. Evelyn was first to enlist in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion on the 21st April 1904 and was given the Regimental Number 7076. The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act of 1907 changed the unit’s title to the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion. The “Saturday Night Soldiers” had regular training sessions with a yearly camp. His records show that he attended this each year and, on the 26thJuly 1908 he was given a “Free Discharge”. His military career seemed over.

His younger brother, Ernest, also joined the 3rd Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment and was given the number 3/8631. We do not have details of when he joined up, but another local man, Cecil Burton, with number 8645, had enlisted on the 14th January 1909. Ernest would have joined up at a similar time.

Ernest married Ellen Favell on the 28th March 1910 in Irthlingborough and, we see in the 1911 Census that they were living there, at 11 Upper Victoria Street with Ellen’s parents, Frederick and Margaret. Also, there, was the young couple’s one-year-old son, Dennis.

War came, and Ernest was immediately called up to join the 1st Battalion of the Northamptonshires. The military records appear to have mixed up Ernest with Ernest Edward Wood (8501) who survived the war but we have some idea of his time in the war.

The 1st Battalion was taken by destroyers to Le Havre, arriving there on the 13th August 1914. Disembarking, they marched to their camp on the outskirts of the town. The History of the Regiment records:

The march was through crowds of rapturously enthusiastic French people and to the roars of “Tipperary” – that haunting marching song of the Old Contemptibles, as the British Expeditionary Force was soon to be known from the famous reference by the German Emperor to the “contemptible little army” of England.

The German plan was to sweep through Belgium on a left wheel before marching on to Paris. The BEF, including the Northamptonshires, rushed to join up with the French to confront the German offensive. At first the Northamptonshires were in reserve after a tiring day-long march.

For the British Army, which was considered a professional force, although including many part-time soldiers, and few who had been involved in warfare, the first encounters with the enemy were a terrible shock. The Battle of Mons has attracted a number of myths but the truth is that the Allies were steamrollered by the German army. Streams of weary men were soon marching back along roads crowded with soldiers’ horses and guns and fleeing civilians.

An unnamed Raunds School’s former pupil wrote to his old headmaster telling of the other ex-pupils in the Battalion. He wrote:

There are several of us here now, and most of us have been out since the beginning of the war. I myself have been present at all of the engagements, including the retreat from Mons, the battles of the Meuse, Marne and Aisne. . .

. . . We have had some rather exciting times up to now, and I suppose we shall have some more before the war is over. We did a bayonet charge on the Prussian Guard last month (14th September) which I dare say you have read about in the papers and I think that we did very well indeed.

He mentions nine men of the Raunds’ contingent, six of whom were killed later.

The First Battle of Ypres came, with the Northamptonshires at a small village near Pilckem. At 6pm on the 23rd October the enemy attacked all along the line and this continued through the night. The Regimental History records:

Shelling continues intermittently through the next day, the reserve company again being the chief sufferers. In the afternoon German shells set fire to the mill that stood in the vicinity of the centre companies of the 48th [1st Battalion]. Houses and haystacks were on fire in all directions, and when dusk fell the whole countryside was lit up by bright jets of flame. At 6 pm the enemy made another determined general attack which was preceded by heavy artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire.

The Northamptonshires fought on bravely and suffered 150 casualties. Ernest was one of the men killed. Ellen received a pension of £2 10s. 10d. and also £5 1s. 8d. for her son, Dennis until he became 16 years old.

Ernest’s older brother, Evelyn, had married Ringstead girl, Maud Cope, in 1904 and the young couple had moved there. As we have seen, he had served his time in the Territorials and had been given a free discharge in 1908. The couple had three children, Edward James who was born on the 7th March 1905, Mabel Evelyn, 18th April 1907, and Lawrence Evelyn on the 9th March 1911. Early the following month, the 1911 Census shows the family in Leveratt’s Row in a two-up two-down cottage. Evelyn was a Handsewn Bootmaker working at the Unity Co-operative Society factory in the High Street.

At first his family and his military work saved him from being conscripted. His brother’s death so early in the war would have been a great shock and he would have heard from others of the terrible conditions at the Front. He first came before a Military Tribunal on the 9th February 1917 citing “family commitments” as his reason for appealing against conscription. He was granted a temporary exemption but, on the 14th May, his case was considered again. This time we see that he revealed that besides family commitments that he had an invalid child. Despite this, his plea for a renewal of his exemption was refused.

Later documents indicate that the disabled child was probably his eldest son, Edward. We do not know the nature of his disability but we do know that, later, his “guardian” was Mr Boyden, who was the “Collector” for the Thrapston Union. Thomas Boyden had been appointed the Relieving Officer for the Union in 1917.

As so often, we have few military records for Evelyn after he enlisted in 1917 but there is a record of an injury that he sustained that does give approximate dates for his enlistment and time in a warzone. From this we see that he joined up in late May or early June 1917 and we know that he first was sent to the 4th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment and given Regimental Number 34300. After some four months training, he joined the 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment in the field in September or early October.

The 12th had been formed in Bermondsey on the 14th May 1915 by the Mayor and the Borough and first landed at Le Havre on the 2nd May 1916. In early September 1917, the Battalion was in training in the Zudausques area of France, some forty miles due east of Boulogne. They then moved some thirty miles east into Belgium, south-east of Ypres. Starting on the 21st, the 12th were in the Battle of Menin Road Ridge which was part of the Third Battle of Ypres. This was an unusually successful, well-planned success leading to a run of small victories, all hard-won.

It is possible that Evelyn missed this battle and joined the Battalion after they had been relieved at the Front and moved to La Danne on the 1st October for rest and training. Soon after, they moved to coastal defence at Nieuport Bains near Dunkirk. The Front Line here was not without danger but was quiet compared to the areas around Ypres and Arras.

On the 27th October the Battalion was relieved by the 1st South African Brigade and were taken by lorries to Couderkerque for training and recovery. On the 12th November orders were received to proceed to Italy by rail. The Austrians, with the help of the Germans, had inflicted a terrible defeat on the Italians at Caporetto on the 24th October 1917. A quarter of a million Italians had been taken prisoner and some 200,000 deserted. It looked as if the Italians were going to be defeated and the French and British rushed troops to shore up the Front.

The War Diary charts the 12th Battalion’s journey over the next few days through France from the Boulogne via Mesgrigney, through the Riviere. They halted on the 16th November at Campomorone (six miles north of Genoa) . . .

. . . where a cordial reception was given to the Battalion. Sandwiches and cigarettes were handed to them and the C.O. was presented with a bouquet.

By the 17th they detrained at Mantova (Shakespeare’s Mantua) and rested nearby at Guidizzolo and then had to move by a series of daily marches: Malavincina, Trevenzuolo, Isola Della Scalla, Bagnolo, Lonigo, Serego, Presina, Longare, Pieve, Casacorba, Musano, Falze, Selva, Conegliano.

It was near Casacorba on the 28th that Evelyn sprained his right foot. He was seen by the 138th Field Ambulance and No. 38 Casualty Clearing Station which would have been accompanying the Battalion. Perhaps he gained a few days rest from the perpetual marching.

It was not until the 1st December 1917 that they marched to the Montello Range and took over the Reserve Line from an Italian Regiment. On the 3rd the Diary reported that the Artillery were active on both sides. There was some rain but it was mainly frost and snow and the roads were treacherous in the mountainous country. There were casualties mainly from artillery and enemy planes. On the 8th December the Diary records:

An Italian Airman brought down an enemy machine in our vicinity. The prisoner was severely wounded and was attended to by our Medical Officer. The machine was a single-seater Albatross with two machine guns. The Airman was of German nationality and appeared very surprised to find English troops holding the Line.

Some idea of this very different terrain can be seen from a brief extract in the Diary from the 12th December.

The enemy opened a heavy bombardment of our lines throughout the morning, shells, including Shrapnel and H.E. and several 15inch shells, about 1500 shells of different calibre fell in our area during the bombardment. Our “A” Company how 9 casualties, 2 killed and 7 wounded. “B” Company had two wounded. . . Great difficulties were experienced by the ration carriers owing to the steep inclines of the cliffs. The majority of our posts are situated on the Face of the Cliffs which ran along our entire front.

After these first encounters by the British troops it soon became clear that the Italians had re-grouped and could win the war on this Front. The British first moved into Reserve and then were ordered back to the Western Front. Again we see their daily journeys through Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Milan, Turin and just over the border, to Modane. Once in France they moved to Amiens and on to Mondicourt where training and route marches continued.

On the 21st March the Battalion entrained to Achiet le Grand, finally coming to the Front here at Sapignies on the 22nd March 1918. They arrived at a bad time for the Allies when the great Michael Offensive of the Germans forced the Allies into a desperate but reasonably ordered retreat. In early April they moved to Poperinge, some 75 miles north, and on the 7th relieved the 1st Guernsey Light Infantry. They were now on the Ypres Salient and took over the line on the Passchendaele Ridge. There was heavy shelling, including gas shells, by both sides and, on the 22nd June, the Battalion:

. . . marched to Divisional Gas Hut where men passed through the Hut and all Gas Respirators were examined by Divisional Gas Officers.

In July 1918 they were in Reserve at La Clytte before moving into the line at Westouter. During July and August they were in and out of the Front Line.

After some time in billets in September, they once more moved forward to relieve the 27th American Division on the Vierstraat Road where they encountered strong parties of the enemy and suffered casualties from machine-gun fire. The British main attack came on the 4th September but Evelyn had been killed the previous day. Like so many others he had been killed when victory was assured but the fighting still continued for a few months more.

He was buried at Wytschaete Military Cemetery in Belgium (Grave 1A. B.B.) and he is the last of the names on the Ringstead War Memorial. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

His widow, Maud, received a small pension for herself and her three youngest children (until each was sixteen years old). The pension for her oldest child, Edward was paid to Thomas Boyden who was his guardian on behalf of the Thrapston Union. He would have been sixteen in 1921, so the pension was not for long. I have seen, on some Ancestry trees, that he went to Australia but an Edward J. Wood, birth date about 1905 died in the Thrapston area in the April-June period of 1929. Was this him?

We have followed Evelyn in his army career and sad ending but he may have heard by letter from Maud, his wife, of another tragedy that had struck her family in 1918. Maud’s older brother, Harry Cope, had married Lucy Bird in 1909 and they had had four children. Reginald, the oldest, was probably born before their marriage for he died in 1911 and he was registered as Reginald C [Cope} Bird. In late 1917 Lucy died of cancer and Harry was a widower with three young children. At this low ebb he received a call-up for war service. He did appeal but, not surprisingly in the circumstances, he submitted the form too late to be considered by the 14th February meeting. The Tribunal was sympathetic and had written to the military to reconsider his conscription. It seems likely that his appeal would have been allowed.

But it was too much for Harry and although he does not seem to have shown any outward change in his personality, he suffered a terrible mental breakdown. Just four days after the Tribunal met, he cut the throats of his two sons, despite the older one’s struggles, and then took his own life. A neighbour saw the lack of activity in the house and broke in the next morning and found the bodies. The daughter survived as she had been staying with another family. Maud attended the funeral which saw the streets, from the house to the cemetery, lined with people from the village and the surrounding area.

She must have felt that the world was falling in on her. In 1939 she was living in Whyman’s Road, still a widow, with her son Roland who was a motor mechanic. Her widowed sister Maggie Mayes was also with them. Maud died, aged 85, in 1971.