Name
Michael Wood
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/07/1915
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
M2/104388
Royal Army Service Corps
Motor Transport
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REDBOURN (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
Redbourn
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Redbourn memorials, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex War Memorials
Pre War
Born in 1884 in Shipley, Sussex son of Thomas and Fanny Wood and was living in Coolham, Shipley in 1901 as a farm servant and in Roffey Park, Horsham in 1911 as stable helper.
Thomas snr died in late 1891 shortly after the birth of Thomas jnr. The 1891 and 1901 censuses list the family in Coolham village which is part of Shipley parish. On the latter census Michael was recorded as a farm servant. Fanny remarried, John Botting, in 1896 but he died just two years later. She later married Wallace Walter Jennings and they moved to Oak Vale in Albourne, and subsequently to Hurst where they lived at 2 Hampton Cottages in the High Street. Michael’ sister Annie worked at the Rectory in Hurst.
By 1911 he had moved to Lower Beeding and was working at a livery
stable as a stable helper. His mother was now married for the third time and living in Albourne.
Visiting her in 1911 was Lily Lizzie Cox whom Michael married on 08/05/1911 at Sayers Common.
He described himself as a groom in the marriage register.
Wartime Service
Michael enlisted as a private in the Army Service Corps in London in early 1915. He was numbered M2/104388 and assigned as a driver to the Motor Transport section. His army papers are not available but it is known that he was sent to the St Albans area for training. He contracted scarlet fever and was hospitalised at the Sister’s Hospital, St Albans. He died there on 13/07/1915 and was buried at St Mary’s Redbourne where he has a CWGC headstone.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Gareth Hughes, Mary Norris
