The quite remarkable Great War Western Front Ypres February 1915 Army Officer’s Military Cross and Mesopotamia Tigris Gun Boats Advance on Baghdad February to March 1917 Naval Officer’s Distinguished Service Cross group awarded to Captain later Lieutenant Commander Sir J.A.H. Wood, D.S.C., M.C., 2nd Baronet Wood of Hengrave, Suffolk, East Surrey Regiment, later Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and formerly Royal Navy. The son of the distinguished barrister-in-law Sir John Wood, the 1st Baronet Wood, who was also a British Conservative Party Politician, he originally joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman and saw service between September 1904 and October 1906, only to have his commission terminated on his having “returned to England apparently without leave” during service aboard the battleship H.M.S. Venerable in the Mediterranean. He then studied and passed the bar becoming a barrister at Inner Temple in 1912 and would go on to have a distinguished career. Owing to the Great War he then received a commission into the British Army in August 1914 with the East Surrey Regiment, being attached to the 2nd Battalion out on the Western Front from January 1915 when thrown into the fighting in the Ypres Salient. Within a matter of weeks, during an attempt to capture a lost trench at Vlamertinghe on the night of 15-16 February, he won a very early award of the Military Cross, he having displayed gallantry, skill and daring in the guidance of the attacking party during this night attack near Ypres, and for a similar act of gallantry on the next night when he voluntarily led the 84th Brigade into operations. Wood’s award is significant, he being the first in his battalion to be decorated, and only the second member of his regiment to receive the Military Cross, though his was the first for a specific act of gallantry. His award was gazetted to him on 27 March 1915, and in the meantime whilst manning trenches at the Spanbroek Molen near to Locre on 16 March 1915 he had been slightly wounded in action during a bombardment by heavy siege guns. Wood survived the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Loos, but then chose a very different path when he transferred his commission to become a temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in October 1915. The reason for this change is unclear, despite his previous albeit embarrassing daliance with the Senior Service. It is quire possible that his father had exerted political pressure in order to get his son removed from the horrors of trench warfare. In this case however it was one of out of the frying pan and into the fire. He found himself posted to the newly commissioned Insect Class River Gunboat H.M.S. Moth and sent to Mesopotamia, to serve as part of Captain Wilfred Nunn’s gunboat flotilla on the Tigris. Wood was aboard Moth when on 24 February 1917 in the Second Battle of Kut she raised the Union Jack in front of Kut-al-Amara on the day it was abandoned by the retreating Ottoman forces. Moth then followed up the retreating Turks during the advance on Baghdad and it was shortly afterwards that she became heavily involved in a four day battle with the foe. Captain Nunn would recall that “they proved to be a strong rearguard, and opened on us with field and machine guns and heavy rifle fire. At this close range there were casualties in all ships, who were all hit many times, but our guns must have caused immense damage to the enemy, as we were at one time firing six-inch guns into them at about 400 to 500 yards. Besides the Turkish Artillery there were a large number of enemy with rifles and machine guns behind the bend at a range of about 100 yards from the ships. In the act of turning round the bend shots came from all directions, and casualties of Moth, which came last in line, were particularly severe. Moth, which was magnificently handled by Lieutenant Commander Cartwright, who was himself wounded, had three officers wounded - all severely - out of four, and two men killed and 18 wounded, which is about 50 percent of her compliment. She was hit eight times by shell - one from ahead hit the fore side of stokehold casing, burst, and pierced the port boiler, both front and back, but luckily missed the boiler tubes. The after-compartment was holed below the water line, and the upper deck and funnels riddled with bullets. Despite this the gunboats had captured or destroyed that day four Turkish steamers, a number of barges full of ammunition and recaptured H.M.S Firefly. Lieutenant Wood had been badly wounded but fought with great gallantry, and was submitted for special mention for his action aboard HMS Moth on 2 March 1917. He “was severely wounded while firing a machine gun in a totally exposed position”. Wood was initially awarded a Mention in Despatches ‘for gallant and distinguished services’, as gazetted to him on 15 August 1917, being then further gazetted with the Distinguished Service Cross on 21 September 1917, he having displayed “coolness and resource under very heavy fire, in firing with machine-guns on Turkish infantry and machine-guns, when all other men were employed in working the main armament of 6-inch, 12-pounder and pom-poms.” Wood had been badly wounded, receiving a flesh wound to the right leg and a gunshot wound to the left buttock which appears to have become infected and necessitated his being invalided via India to England. He however recovered to end the war on service with out in North Russia with Glory IV, the depot ship at Murmansk, and even applied and was accepted for the Submarine Service. Wood then returned to his work as a barrister, and became a Justice of the Peace for Suffolk before returning to uniform during the Second World War, working as a Staff Officer with Coastal Forces and also as a member of the British Admiralty Delegation based across the North Atlantic at Washington D.C. He succeeded to the title of 2nd Baronet Wood of Hengrave in January 1951, but on his death this title became extinct. As a former East Surrey Regiment officer, his combination of awards is unique, and his Military Cross is of regimental significance. His Distinguished Service Cross for Mesopotamia is rare to the Royal Navy, and none can be better for that theatre of war than one earned with the Tigris Flotilla.
Group of 5: Distinguished Service Cross, GVR GRI cypher, reverse bearing hallmarks for London with date letter ‘c’ for 1918, complete with original ribbon and issue pin, and housed in its Garrard & Co fitted presentation case; Military Cross, GVR GRI cypher, housed in its Garrard & Co fitted presentation case; 1914-1915 Star; (2.LIEUT. J.A.H. WOOD. E. SURR. R.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (LIEUT. J.A.H. WOOD. R.N.V.R.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
John Arthur Haigh Wood was born on 22 May 1888 at Yarpole, Hereford, to Sir John Wood, 1st Baronet Wood, and his first wife, Estelle Benham. His father was a distinguished barrister, who had been called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1883, and had then entered politics as a British Conservative Party Politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge from 1910 to 1918 and then for Stalybridge and Hyde from 1918 to 1922. He was created a baronet, of Hengrave, Suffolk, on 14 February 1918.
John Arthur Haigh Wood was educated at Stubbington House School, Fareham, Hampshire, and then at H.M.S. Britannia, the training ship for the Royal Naval College from 15 May 1903,. The elder of two sons, he initially opted for a career in the Royal Navy, and was commissioned as a Midshipman on 30 September 1904, gaining three months ‘time’ on his passing out. He was appointed to the Portsmouth Division, his home address being Hengrave Hall. Wood was then posted aboard the battleship H.M.S Hero from 16 September 1904 and saw service aboard her with the Channel Squadron. This was followed by service aboard the battleship H.M.S. Venerable in the Mediterranean from 1 August 1905. It was whilst he was aboard Venerable however that this went wrong. As of March 1906 his conduct was noted as ‘very good’ but then according to his Naval Record he “returned to England apparently without leave”. On his arrival at Portsmouth he presumably reported himself over to the authorities, and he was then “handed over to his parents after giving himself up at Portsmouth to await decision on case after report received from Venerable”, this being dated 18 October 1906. The outcome was that Wood relinquished his commission and was withdrawn from the Navy List, his career with the Royal Navy being apparently over.
Wood then followed his father with a career in law, and passed the bar becoming a barrister at Inner Temple in 1912. As of 1911 he had been listed as a law student and was living with his father and stepmother in a large house, 45 Grosvenor Square, London, with 15 domestic staff. His father had been married to the Honourable Gertrude Emily Bateman since 1892.
With the outbreak of the Great War Wood was commissioned into the Reserve as a Second Lieutenant (on probation) on 15 August 1914 and then found himself posted to the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, a home service unit. According to his Medal Index Card, Wood was then posted out to the Western Front from 4 January 1915 on attachment to the 2nd Battaiion, however from a check of the Battalion War Diary, this was the date he joined the battalion as one of four subalterns to do so, and finding himself posted to ‘A’ Company. At this time his battalion was located near to Winchester and formed part of the 85th Brigade in the 28th Division, it having only recently returned from India.
Wood most probably disembarked with his battalion at Le Havre on 19 January, from which date he then saw service out in France, and entrained with his battalion for Hazebrouck in the Ypres Salient on 21 January. Wood was confirmed in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on 26 January 1915.
The 2nd Battalion was soon in action to the south of Ypres where it lost many men. It first went into the line on 6 February, relieving the 2nd Leinster’s, however ‘A’ Company was held back, and the following day found itself digging second line trenches under the direction of the officer commanding the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. This being the area of Kruisstrat. Similar work continued on the following day, and then on 9 February the battalion as a whole relieved the 3rd Middlesex in the trenches to the south southeast of Ypres. The battalion was beginning to suffer casualties.
On the morning of 14 February the battalion was ordered to make its first attack, the objective to capture a lost trench at Vlamertinghe, and this began at 1400 hours. It was to be conducted by one platoon of ‘B’ Company and two of ‘D’ Company. For this action ‘A’ Company manned the firing line and support trenches, with ‘C’ Company acting in support of the attack, whilst the remainder of ‘D’ Company and a section from ‘B’ Company was held in Reserve. The advance was over very exposed and open ground and the attack was held up. Both ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies lost nearly all of their officers. In all one officer was killed, six wounded, with either other ranks killed, 106 wounded, and 37 missing. In the aftermath of this action it marched back into its billets. Early the next morning of 15 February it suffered further loss, quite possibly as a result of shell fire, with one officer and one missing, and four other ranks killed, and a further 7 wounded.
That same afternoon, the battalion was order to make good on what it had failed to do the day before, namely to capture the trench. At 1715 hours it marched to the attack, now as part of a larger force comprising the 2nd Buffs with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers in reserve. Colonel Geddes had command. The trench was only partially taken as the Germans had barricaded it and occupied 2/3rds of it. In this attack the battalion suffered heavily from shell fire, during which touch was lost and without a guide being available it was impossible to regain it. The battalion eventually returned to billets at 0545 on 16 February. A further officer had been killed with another wounded and the other ranks had suffered 5 killed, 37 wounded, and 14 missing. It is now known that Wood was also involved in guiding in the 84th Brigade who took up the attack on the same trench that evening.
A couple of days later the 2nd Battalion would find itself under the temporary orders of the 7th Brigade in the 3rd Division, this lasted into March 1915. It would be whilst the battalion was manning trenches at the Spanbroek Molen near to Locre on 16 March 1915 that Wood was slightly wounded in action, but remained on duty, whilst the regiment was bombarded by heavy siege guns.
On 24 March that the battalion was paraded in front of the General Officer Commanding the 3rd Division, and three other ranks were presented with gallantry awards. Those decorated were Sergeant (No.8805) A. Bull, Private (No.8733) A.J. Doyle and Private (No.145) F. Ruffell. All three men had been decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their actions at the Spanbroek Molen on 12 March, all awards being eventually gazetted to them on 3 June 1915. These three men were the first members of the 2nd Battalion to be noted in the War Diary as having received awards, however some three days later, 27 March 1915, it was officially published in the London Gazette that Second Lieutenant Wood had been awarded a new decoration, the Military Cross, and that it had been earned on the 15-16th February.
The Military Cross had been created on 28 December 1914 as a decoration for commissioned officers with the substantive rank of Captain or below and for Warrant Officers. The first 98 awards were gazetted on 1 January 1915, to 71 officers, and 27 warrant officers. The first officer from the East Surrey Regiment to be so decorated was Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant G.E. Hyson, 1st Battalion, his being without a citation. The first three men to receive awards with a published citation were gazetted on 18 February 1915, though there were no East Surreys in this list, and this remained the same for the gazette of 10 March 1915. Therefore, with Wood being shown as gazetted on 24 March 1915, and the only East Surrey so honoured on that occasion, he can be confirmed as the second man within his regiment to receive the Military Cross, and the first to have his award published with a citation, he being also the first member of his battalion so honoured, and also the first member of his battalion to earn any form of decoration for gallant conduct under enemy fire.
It is of note that within only a few weeks of seeing action, Wood was displaying “gallantry, skill and daring” worthy of the newly created MC. The Gazette records his award having been earned “for gallantry, skill and daring on the night of 15th-16th February, 1915, in the guidance of the attacking party near Ypres, and for a similar act of gallantry on the next night when he voluntarily led the 84th Brigade into operations.”
Wood whose seniority was then back dated to 10 August 1914 on promotion to Lieutenant (gazetted 7 May), was then promoted to temporary Captain on 12 April 1915.
Based on the East Surrey Regiment’s actions in 1915, Wood was likely to have spent the next few months facing the shelling and gassing in and around Ypres. He fought in the Second Battle of Ypres from 22 April to 25 May, and specifically during the Battle of St Julien from 24 April to 5 May, when the Germans first used poison gas. On 24 April 1915, in the deployment of the first gas bombardment, the battalion had 141 killed and 256 wounded, and ‘A’ Company was involved in the thick of the fighting in attempting to stem the German assault. A week later it lost a further 100 killed and 133 wounded.
The 2nd Battalion took part in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, and fought valiantly in the defence of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The following month the battalion was transferred to the Salonika Expeditionary Force, and spent the remainder of the War on the Struma, Valley Front and east of Lake Doiran. However temporary Captain Wood chose a very different path when he relinquished his commission on 20th September 1915
By October 1915 though Wood had jumped ship to become a temporary Lieutenant within the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, being gazetted as such on 19 October 1915. He resigned his commission in the East Surrey Regiment on 3 November 1915.
Wood’s next gazetted action was for his naval role in the liberation of Baghdad as part of the Mesopotamia campaign two years later in February 1917. Serving aboard H.M.S Moth, he was severely wounded in ferocious fighting against the Turkish rear guard and received a Distinguished Service Cross for his gallantry.
When the Turks entered World War One on Germany’s side, the British sought to protect their oil reserves in the Ottoman province of Mesopotamia. Major-General Charles Townshend, leading the 6th Division of the Indian Army, pushed through Amara, Kut and approached Baghdad but by November 1915 progress had ground to a halt and the British were forced to retreat to Kut. 10,000 troops now found themselves under siege at Kut and over the next few months were worn down, almost to the point of starvation. On 29 April 1916, Townshend surrendered to the Ottomans in one of the worst British defeats of the war.
The British Government took over control from the Indian General Staff of the campaign and in July 1916 Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Maude started to rebuild the British army, adding to it a force of armed river boats and river supply ships. On 13 December 1916, Maude began a second advance up both banks of the Tigris with an Anglo-Indian force of 150,000 men and Wood was in the river boat flotilla. The Ottomans had fortified the Khadairi Bend, a river loop. After two weeks of siege work (6 January to 19 January 1917), the British had captured it. Maude continued his cautious but successful advance up the Tigris, next attacking the Ottoman forces along a strong defensive line of the Hai River from 25 January till 4 February 1917. He then took the Dahra Bend on 16 February and the Sannaiyat position on 22 February. The British were closing in on Kut and finally re-captured it on 24 February 1917 in the Second Battle of Kut.
Maude pressed on to liberate Baghdad on 11 March 1917. This victory forced the Ottoman government to end its military operations in Persia and to focus on preventing the British from now capturing Mosul.
On his joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Wood had been first appointed to H.M.S. Excellent at Portsmouth to attend a Gunnery Course, and on completion of this was posted on 5 January 1916 to H.M.S. Pembroke, as an additional officer with the Insect Class River Gunboat H.M.S. Moth, which vessel was then being readied for active service out in Mesopotamia.
H.M.S. Moth was commissioned on the date that Wood joined her, she being destined for service as part of General Maude’s river boat army taking on the Tigris, serving as part of the gunboat flotilla under Captain Wilfred Nunn. Moth’s first act was to raise the Union Flag in front of Kut on the day the Turkish forces abandoned that city on 24 February. Moth then participated in the capture and occupation of Baghdad during February 1917.
According to Captain Nunn’s Despatch: “On the forenoon of 24th February 1917, Captain Nunn took his gunboat flotilla (Mantis, Tarantula, Moth, Butterfly, Gadfly and Snakefly) up the Tigris avoiding floating mines and around 9.30pm anchored off Kut, where he hoisted the Union Jack. He continued to push the retreating Turkish Army up river the next day.
“They proved to be a strong rearguard, and opened on us with field and machine guns and heavy rifle fire. At this close range there were casualties in all ships, who were all hit many times, but our guns must have caused immense damage to the enemy, as we were at one time firing six-inch guns into them at about 400 to 500 yards.
“Besides the Turkish Artillery there were a large number of enemy with rifles and machine guns behind the bend at a range of about 100 yards from the ships.
“In the act of turning round the bend shots came from all directions, and casualties of Moth, which came last in line, were particularly severe.
“There were casualties in all three ships, Moth, which was magnificently handled by Lieutenant Commander Charles H. A. Cartwright, who was himself wounded, had three officers wounded - all severely - out of four, and two men killed and 18 wounded, which is about 50 percent of her compliment.
“She was hit eight times by shell - one from ahead hit the fore side of stokehold casing, burst, and pierced the port boiler, both front and back, but luckily missed the boiler tubes. The after-compartment was holed below the water line, and the upper deck and funnels of all ships riddled with bullets.
“The quartermaster and pilot in the conning tower of H.M.S. Mantis were killed, but the prompt action of her Captain saved her from running ashore. I consider that the excellent spirit of the men and skilful handling of the ships by their Captains in a difficult and unknown shallow water were most praiseworthy.”
Despite the terrible hammering the Moth had received which sent her limping down to Basra for repairs, the gallant little Moth was back in action in four and a half days.
The gunboats had captured or destroyed that day four Turkish steamers, a number of barges full of ammunition and recaptured H.M.S Firefly.
Captain Nunn went on to detail in his report the seizure of Ctesiphon, the fall of the Baghdad railway, and finally the arrival of the British at the citadel of Baghdad at 3.40pm on 11 March 1917, with General Sir Maude as part of the flotilla on board paddle steamer no. 53.
Nunn concluded his report with, “I have much pleasure in bringing to your notice the excellent behaviour and spirit of the Captains, Officers and men under my command during these operations, which were, in my opinion, worthy of the great traditions of His Majesty’s Service.
“In conclusion, I desire to express how greatly the Naval Forces serving in Mesopotamia have always been indebted to the Military and Political services for never-failing help and assistance on all occasions.”
Lieutenant Wood was submitted for special mention for his action aboard HMS Moth on 2 March 1917. He “was severely wounded while firing a machine gun in a totally exposed position” and eventually received the Distinguished Service Cross for his services detailed in Captain Nunn’s dispatch.
Wood had received a flesh wound to the right leg and a gunshot wound to the left buttock which necessitated his being invalided from Moth on 4 March 1917. His wounds are deemed most severe, and his father was cabled on 8 March “severe flesh wound right leg, dangerously ill.” Wood was treated in the hospital at Amara, and by 17 March he was seen to be serous but improving slowly. Having improved sufficiently to travel, he was discharged from Amara Hospital on 30 April and invalided to India, where he was admitted to the Colaba Hospital at Bombay on 9 May, and having improved sufficiently then left Bombay for England aboard the hospital ship “Khiva” on 22 June, and after his arriving at London on 19 July, was a few days later surveyed by the Medical Director General as “unfit, recovering”. On 20 July he was assigned to Victory at Portsmouth for 35 days in Haslar Hospital.
It was around this time that news of his exploits in Mesopotamia where being recognised. Wood was initially awarded a Mention in Despatches ‘for gallant and distinguished services’, he having been brought to notice by Lieut. General Sir Stanley Maude, K.C.B., Commander-in-Chief, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, as deserving of special mention, as published in the London Gazette for 15 August 1917. His specific actions were published in Captain Nunn’s Despatch which appeared in the London Gazette for 21 September 1917, the same that publication of his award of the Distinguished Service Cross occurred. The citation reading: “For coolness and resource under very heavy fire, in firing with machine-guns on Turkish infantry and machine-guns, when all other men were employed in working the main armament of 6-inch, 12-pounder and pom-poms.”
Wood was clearly keen to return to active service, this time back on the ground fighting in the trenches with the Royal Naval Division, however this transfer was refused on 22 May 1918, he being still assessed as medically unfit through July 1918. Wood was however then appointed to H.M.S. Glory IV from 31 August 1918, she being the Royal Navy depot ship at Kola Bay near to Murmansk in North Russia.
Glory IV had formerly been the Russian cruiser Askold but had pledged allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government when the fall of the Russian Empire occurred, at which point she had been sailing in the Mediterranean. Under Provisional Russian Government Command she departed Scotland for Murmansk in June 1917, but owing to the armistice with Germany in December 1917, Askold was demobilised and plans were made to place her in storage at Archangel. Askold was seized in Kola Bay on 3 August 1918 by the Royal Navy after the Russian Revolution and commissioned as HMS Glory IV. She remained out at Kola Bay until March 1919 when she was then brought back to Gareloch, Scotland, and continued to be used primarily as a depot ship. On the conclusion of the Russian Civil War, she was offered to the new Soviet Navy in return for costs incurred.
Wood would have travelled out to North Russia to take up his appointment, and was there when a note appears in his files for his having been medically assessed fit for service in submarines. Then on 13 September 1918 he was ordered for duty with submarines he being noted at this time as an “officer of outstanding merit, very good organising powers, most tactful and successful in handling men, performed duties of gunnery officer for 7 months and primary spotting officer, showed most unusual aptitude as both jobs were new to him, have seldom seen a better all round officer.”
Nothing further is shown for his time with submarines, and this appointment may well have come to nothing, he being demobilised from service on 18 June 1919. Wood was back in London when he go married to one Evelyn Saumarez at the Church of St Peter in Eaton Square on 30 June 1919, and they went on to have two daughters. His wife the eldest daughter of Lord James St Vincent de Saumarez, the 4th Baron de Saumarez, who was a British diplomat and peer, for some forty-five years a member of the House of Lords, he was grandson of the 1st Baron de Saumarez, a famed Admiral of the Red from the Napoleonic Wars.
In October 1921 Wood applied for his Great War campaign medals, with his 1914-1915 Star being issued to him though the East Surrey Regiment officers list on 22 December 1921, and his British War Medal and Victory Medal being confirmed in his Medal Index Card as having been issued through the Royal Navy. At this time Wood was residing at Tastock House, Bury St.Edmonds.
By 1939 Wood had retired from the law, and was residing in Thingoe, Suffolk, his wife having died on 5 February 1934. She lies buried in St Catherine Churchyard in Flempton, Suffolk. He served as a Justice of the Peace for Suffolk from 1928 and would continue to do so through in 1946.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Wood returned to uniform as a Lieutenant with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 11 November 1940, and initially saw service at Great Yarmouth. Initially aboard the former Great Yarmouth pleasure vessel and by then Admiralty requisitioned vessel H.M. Tender Watchful, he then transferred to H.M.S. Midge, the name for the Coastal Forces base which was established there in January 1941. He then found himself employed as a Staff Officer with the Felixstowe Coastal Forces base, H.M.S. Beehive, and was promoted to Acting Lieutenant-Commander on 26 August 1941. From January 1942 until 1 April 1942 he was transferred to the Admiralty for special and miscellaneous services after which he joined the British Admiralty Delegation based at Washington D.C. when with H.M.S. Saker. Wood returned to Beehive in February 1943 until June 1944. His commission was then terminated on 27 October 1944 for being medically unfit. Wood is additionally entitled to the Defence Medal and War Medal 1939-1945 for his wartime services.
On the death of his father on 28 January 1951, he inherited the title becoming the 2nd Baronet Wood of Hengrave, Suffolk, and on his death in Weybridge, Surrey, on 5 March 1974 the title became extinct.
