Name
Gordon Ewart Douglas Wood
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/07/1916
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Sergeant
5430
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
2nd/1st Bucks Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 83 to 85.
France
UK & Other Memorials
Hunsdon War Memorial
Memorial Plaque St Dunstan’s Church, Hunsdon
Pre War
Born on 21st January 1892, only son of Ernest Douglas and Florence Marie, of Wynchlows, Hunsdon. His father was a builder and decorator employer and Gordon was a builder’s assistant.
Wartime Service
Enlisted in Hertford and was posted to the Hertfordshire Regiment but then to 2nd/1st Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. This battalion was raised in Aylesbury and received official recognition on 26th September 1914. His unit landed in France on 24th May 1916 and went to Laventie and Fromelles where they were due to attack on the 17th July, but which was postponed for two days, by now Gordon Wood had been promoted to Lance Sergeant. The battle of Fromelles was meant as a diversionary attack, 50 miles south of the Somme battlefields, it was to be carried out by the 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division, both of whom had only recently arrived at the front and were inexperienced in trench warfare. The attack took place in broad daylight and the advancing troops were soon being swept by German artillery and machine gun fire causing very heavy casualties. The brigades of the 61st Division reached the enemy first line but were forced to retreat, the Australians advanced further but found the Germans had abandoned their first line trenches which were now flooded. No ground was gained in the disastrous attack in which the 61st Division suffered almost 1500 casualties, including the Ox and Bucks L.I. who lost 322 men from a force of 600, one of whom was Gordon Wood. The Australians lost over 5500 men from a force of 7700. The German troops facing the Ox and Bucks L.I were the 16th Bavarian Regiment, one of whose messengers was Adolf Hitler.
Acknowledgments
Terry & Glenis Collins
