Sir Henry Evelyn Wood
Field Marshal Sir Henry Evelyn
Wood VC GCB GCMG
Evelyn Wood was the son of a clergyman born near
Braintree in Essex. His family had naval connections and it was as a midshipman
on HMS Queen that he began his career. He switched to the army during the
Crimean War to serve in the 13th Light Dragoons. He went to India during the
Indian Mutiny and joined the 17th Lancers and in 1862 went to the infantry,
first joining the 73rd, then the 17th and finally the 90th LI. It might have
been better if he had become a doctor as his life was littered with accidents
and dangerous illnesses. Perhaps his strangest accident was being trampled by a
giraffe when he rode it for a bet, and fell off. One of his aides in Zululand
said that Colonel Wood's baggage was like a mobile pharmacy, as he needed so
much medicine for his various ailments. One of his biggest drawbacks was
deafness which became progressively worse.
But he was a very brave man who was more than once recommended for the
VC, which he gained during the Indian Mutiny. He was also studious and
literate, writing books and press articles, as well as studying law, becoming a
barrister in the middle of his successful military career. He was included in
Wolseley's ring but fell foul of Wolseley himself, especially after the
humiliating treaty he was instructed to sign with the Boers in 1881. He was
placed in command of the army after the defeat at Majuba and was confident that
he could turn the tide, but the British government ordered him to make peace.
Wolseley wrote of Wood that he was vain and cunning and would never be capable
of high command.
But Wolseley could not take away what Evelyn
Wood achieved in Zululand. In the first invasion Lord Chelmsford's failure at
Isandhlwana was offset by Wood's victory over the Zulus at Kambula. Colonel
Wood was placed in command of the 4th column to operate in the north from
Bemba's Kop with instructions to contain the Zulus in that area so that they
did not reinforce the impi operating near Isandhlwana .
He had
2,000 men which included the 1st Battalion 13th LI and his own regiment, the
90th LI. In the second invasion he commanded the Flying Column which had a
large number of mounted troops as well as the 13th, 80th and 90th. After the
final battle at Ulundi, news came through that Chelmsford was to be replaced by
Garnet Wolseley. After the handover Chelmsford sailed back to England taking
Redvers Buller and Evelyn Wood with him.
Wood's injuries and illness blighted his career from the
beginning. As a young midshipman he fought in the Crimea, finding that the heat
of battle suited him. But at Inkerman, when he was 16, his arm was shattered by
enemy case-shot. Doctors wanted to amputate it but he stood his ground and
managed to save it, although he was removing bone splinters from his arm for
weeks afterwards. He returned to the Crimea as a cornet in the 13th Light
Dragoons but fell ill with pneumonia and typhoid fever. His mother, Lady Emma
Wood, was informed that he was going to die so she, being a strong and
determined woman, went to Scutari. Her arrival was timely because Evelyn was in
a state of near starvation, and suffering mistreatment from Miss Nightingale's
nurses. Lady Wood removed him from the hospital against all advice, and brought
him home where he recovered. He also sustained bad injuries from hunting
accidents, a sport that he was addicted to. He almost died from a morphine
overdose when it was administered by a doctor who claimed that it would cure
his insomnia.
In 1867 he married the Hon Mary Paulina Anne Southwell, but
this arrangement was fraught with difficulty. At first Paulina's brother,
Viscount Southwell, forbade the marriage because their family were Catholic and
the Woods were Protestant. For four years Evelyn had no contact with her, and
then he proposed by letter.
She did not reply for a week or so, in which time Evelyn
decided to embark on the Abyssinian expedition. But when he found out that it
was General Robert Napier leading the campaign, not General William Napier, he
changed his mind and carried on with his marriage proposal. He made Paulina
promise that she would not interfere with his efforts to secure a command on an
overseas campaign. She agreed and they were married. The problem with religion
reared it's head later when his rich Aunt Ben was handing out allowances to
Woods' sisters but for Evelyn there was to be nothing, on the grounds that he
was married to a Catholic.
Aunt Ben was an important figure in Wood's life because he
was not a rich man in his own right. When money wasn't forthcoming from the
unreliable Aunt he had to be financed by his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Barrett
whose generosity allowed Sir Evelyn to keep several horses, grooms, servants
and a pack of hounds. When Aunt Ben was nearing the end of her long life she
capriciously changed her will in favour of Wood's sister, Kitty O'Shea. Evelyn,
his brother Charles and sister Anna tried to have her declared insane but she
charmed the doctor who was sent to ascertain her state of mind. After her death
the siblings ganged up on Kitty who famously caused a great scandal by having
an extramarital affair with Charles Stewart Parnell. After lengthy legal
wrangling Evelyn received 20,000 pounds.
After the campaign against Arabi Pasha in 1882,
in which he served, but did not take part in the battle at Tel-el-Kebir, Evelyn
was made sirdar of the Egyptian Army. He made many improvements including
giving the men regular payments and allowing them to go home on furlough.
During the cholera epidemic of 1883 he instructed his British officers to tend
the sick soldiers, which amazed the men and increased the trust they had in the
British leadership. During the Gordon relief expedition, Wood criticised
Wolseley's route along the Nile, the only senior officer to do so. He also
quarrelled with his friend Sir Redvers Buller over the speed of the supply
transport. Wood also upset the doctors by insisting on having women nurses in
the Aswan hospital.
In 1889 he was given the plum job of the
command of Aldershot. He took advantage of this period to improve cavalry and
musketry training and generally make life a bit easier for soldiers, whether in
barracks or on leave.
He established a school of cookery and arranged for sick
soldiers to have their food cooked in the hospital rather than brought to them
from their regiment. This job lasted until 1893 when he was made Quartermaster
General of the army, but whilst in Aldershot his wife died, in 1891, having
produced 3 sons and 3 daughters.
In 1897 he was made Adjutant-General and
started by insisting that the army be increased in size by 9,000 men.
 |
Nothing was done but he was proved right because the Boer War
brought about the need for an immediate increase in recruitment. He was
frustrated not to be given a command in this war. Wolseley told him that it
would be inappropriate to send him to war after having signed the 1881 peace
treaty with the Boers.
His last job in the army, in 1901, was as
commander of the Second Army Corps, which later became Southern Command. He was
promoted to Field Marshal on 8th April 1903 and set up home at Sherborne where he
could ride with the Blackmoor Vale Hunt. He still tried to improve the lot of
ordinary soldiers, securing an issue of 3 shirts each instead of two, and
abolishing unnecessary guard posts. He was very keen on cleanliness, hygiene
and sensible clothing. He involved himself with the Army Medical Corps which is
not surprising since he had experienced first-hand almost every known injury
and illness. He was also very enlightened in his outlook on religion, bringing
about changes in the services to consecrate new Colours to make them more
ecumenical
Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 6 December 1879, page 728
A Valiant and Generous Soldier.
SIR EVELYN WOOD on his return from
Africa in October last was entertained in the City by the ancient guild of
Fishmongers, and in an eloquent speech in response to his health spoke as
follows :
— While gratefully acknowledging your
welcome to-night, my thoughts naturally revert to the, Alas! many gallant
friends who have, in memory only, accompanied me back from Africa—Ronald
Campbell, of the Coldstreams, who gave his unselfish life up for others, when
he dashed forward into a cavern and, absolutely touched by a Zulu gun, fell a
voluntary sacrifice, but a sacrifice instantaneously avenged by two brave
boys—Lieutenant Lysons and Private Fowler, of the 90th Light Infantry—who,
undaunted by Campbell's fate, ran in and slew Campbell's slayers. I call them
boys, because really their united ages scarcely exceed my own, so you will not
wonder that I retain considerable confidence in "our boys," and do
not believe the race has deteriorated in fighting power. I was, however,
unusually fortunate in my comrades.
The 13th Light Infantry and the 80th,
which joined me in time for Ulundi, were composed of veteran soldiers, while
the 90th Light Infantry—which corps I have yet the honour to command—is
remarkable for it’s excellent non-commissioned officers. Such was the spirit in
the corps that when, in 1877, the battalion was ordered to South Africa for the
Qaeka war, many non-commissioned officers who were entitled to join the
reserves, and who had, in several wars, obtained promises of situations in
private life, sought and obtained permission to remain with the colours. These
men have been the loyal and efficient assistants to those gallant officers
under whom our " short service lads " have done many long days of
work. They bore privations and endured fatigue with a cheery readiness I can
never forget. And when, on that glorious March 29, 24,000 Zulus measured their
strength for some five hours against our 1800 men—“long five hours I can tell
you I thought it—the veteran 18th, the younger 90th, Tremlett's gunners and
Buller's horsemen young and old, upheld equally the traditions of our arms.
(Cheers.) I will not dwell long on sad reflections, bat while thanking you for
the compliment you are paying the Flying Column, through its leader, I must
recall some who, having died in your service, deserve to live in your memory.
(Load cheers.) Robert Barton, another Coldstream, who, "brave as he was
humane," when last seen alive was endeavouring to save a comrade from the
remorseless foe— (cheers); Llewellyn Lloyd, my interpreter, brave, wise, and
kind, of whom I had previously reported, "he possesses every attribute of
an English gentleman," and was acquainted with every side of the Zulu
character, who was shot down at my aide ;
From the days of the " Battle of the Standard" to the
late sorrowful hour when Coghill, of the 24th, leaving his vantage point, swam
back to bear company in death with Melville, going down under the bloody waters
of the Buffalo, honourably encumbered with the Queen's colours, there has
always been what some call a fictitious, but what I call an ideal, value
attached to certain objects in war. We have been accused of inhumanity. I have
denied this charge officially for my troops and for myself. (Prolonged cheers.)
1 can assure you the only Zulu I personally chastised was one who declined to
help us to carry a decrepit woman from a mountain where she must have starved.
When I tell you it was the man's mother, you will pardon this practical effort
to induce the heathen to honour his mother. (" Hear, hear," laughter,
and cheers.) The flying column is broken up—Captain Woodgate impassive as a
rock under the hottest fire ; the brave surgeons Reilly, Connelly, and Brown,
who, exposed to a storm of bullets, tenderly cared for our wounded ; Major
Hackett, one of the ablest and bravest officers, who, directing his men to take
cover, himself walked erect amongst them, amidst a hail of missiles, until one
wounded him so cruelly ; and so with Beresford, Browne, Leet, and Buller, now
well-known names, and I am proud to claim them as comrades. (Loud cheers.) You
all know how they gained their crosses.
It was not merely in taking
life. Each in his turn carried off soldiers who must else have fallen under the
assegais of the Zulus. You probably do not know, however, that when Major Leet
took up on a tired pony the double burden he incurred a double risk, for he
went into the fight so crippled by a sprained knee that, once dismounted, he
could not have made an effort to escape—he could not then have got the length
of this room in five minutes. You have all heard of the valour of my right-hand
man, but I alone, perhaps, can realise the full value of his services. Careful
of his men's lives, reckless of his own, untiring and unflinching in the
performance of duty, we owed much of our success to his brilliant leadership of
the mounted men. To his devoted friendship I owe more than I can express. Men
learn to know each other well in active service, and I have not known a better
friend nor a bettor soldier than Redvers Buller. (Great cheering.) These, my
comrades, are all dispersed. Some are still serving under that splendid
soldier, Sir Garnet Wolseley— (loud cheers) —and they are fortunate; for no
leader ha« ever before so succeeded in drawing to his service men of promise.
The story of a bloody and selfish despotism has ended with the
clever capture of Cetywayo by my friend Major Marter, and our courageous
Ashantee scout, Lord Gifford. Our eighteen months' hard living, hard marching,
and hard fighting is over, and we are home again. To you at home our thanks are
due. You inspire our beat actions. Your blame is what we fear more than
assegais. (Cheers.) You have found money, men, and munition. Your sympathy with
us in the course of the Zulu war has been an electric current. Your welcome
repays us for the hardship and misfortunes of war. I am aware I owe much to
your spontaneous kindness to-night—much to the fact that I am the grandson of
Matthew Wood—a name synonymous with truth, justice, unswerving honour, and
courage.
Family of Sir
Evelyn Wood
General Henry Evelyn Wood married Mary Pauline
Southwell, who was born in 1841 in Dublin.
His uncle was Lt Col Robert Henry Southwell,
who married Frideswide Moore.
Frideswide Moore was Barbara Brabazon’s sister in law..
Robert
Henry Southwell (October
1745 – 29 August 1817, styled The Honourable from
1766, was an Irish politician.
He was the
second son of Thomas Southwell, 1st Viscount Southwell and his wife Margaret Hamilton,
daughter of Arthur Cecil Hamilton. Southwell served as
lieutenant-colonel of the 8th Dragoons. In 1776, he entered the Irish
House of Commons for Downpatrick, representing the constituency
until 1783.
In 1786, he
married Frideswide Moore, daughter of John Moore, and had by her a son and a
daughter. Southwell died at Clontarf, Dublin
Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (2 June 1768 – 25 September 1843) was a
British Whig politician and was Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817.
Matthew Wood was the son of William Wood (died
1809), a serge maker from Exeter and Tiverton both
in Devon, by his wife Catherine Cluse (died 1798).
He was descended from the Wood family of Hareston in
the parish of Brixton in Devon, which the family had inherited by
marriage to the heiress of the Carslake family. The present Page-Wood baronets quarter the arms of Carslake Argent, a bull's
head erased sable.[6]
He was educated briefly at Blundell's School in Tiverton, before being obliged to help his
ailing father. He was apprenticed to his cousin, an Exeter chemist and
druggist, but moved to London in 1790 to set himself up in business.
He was a member of the Worshipful Company of
Fishmongers, of
which he became Prime Warden, a member of the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, and served as Sheriff of the City of London for 1809 and as Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817. He was elected
unopposed as a Member of Parliament for the City of
London at a by-election in June
1817, following the resignation of Harvey Christian Combe MP. He held the seat until his death in
1843.
Wood was a prominent partisan and adviser of Queen Caroline on her return to England in 1820, a
controversial role. Greville noted acerbically in his
diary on 7 June 1820:
"The Queen arrived in London yesterday at seven o’clock… She
travelled in an open landau, Alderman Wood sitting by her side and Lady Anne Hamilton and another woman opposite. Everybody was disgusted at the
vulgarity of Wood in sitting in the place of honour, while the Duke of Hamilton’s sister was sitting backwards in
the carriage".
Wood's radicalism belied his very
19th century propensity for improving his and his family's lot. The brush with
royalty may have given him ideas about fixing his status and his family’s
inheritance prospects. In 1836 the 'Gloucester millionaire', banker James 'Jemmy' Wood, and one of the richest men in the
country, died, and the Alderman became one of his heirs.
Matthew Wood was actually no relation
to the millionaire despite their shared surname. It seems Jemmy Wood’s
feeble-minded sister was an admirer of Queen Caroline and had taken a shine to
the Alderman, to the extent of leaving property to him when she died. Gaining
more knowledge of the Gloucester Woods by living in his newly acquired
property, the radical MP must have soon realized the vulnerability of the old
banker and his fortune. In 1833, Jemmy gave the Alderman rent-free use of
Hatherley House which the bank had acquired through a bankruptcy. The mutual
back scratching led to Wood allowing Jemmy to send all his mail under
parliamentary franked cover. Soon, the Alderman was setting his sights on a
baronetcy not only for himself, but also for the old millionaire as a kind of
backstop.
The story of the will is a very
complex one, but it involved leaving the entire estate valued at nearly
£1,000,000, to Alderman Wood and three other executors. Eventually, after a
long court case against Wood and the other three executor-beneficiaries, on 20
Feb 1839 Judge Jenner in an extremely long and detailed verdict at the Arches
Prerogative Court, London, 'decided that the terms were made by conspiracy and
fraud, and ordered that the whole of the immense property should be divided
amongst two relations'.
And yet, within a couple of years,
this verdict was overturned on appeal by Lord Lyndhurst, and the four men (or
family in the case of John Chadborn, Jemmy's lawyer, who had hanged himself in
the interim) who had been accused of fraud were awarded what money and property
was left after court costs were allowed for. The inheritance formed the basis
of the Wood family fortunes (now the Page Woods) and also that of John
Chadborn's daughter's family, the Prices.
Alderman Wood was finally made a Baronet in 1837, of Hatherley House in Gloucestershire, the name of his country seat.
On 5 November 1795 Wood married Maria
Page, the daughter of John Page of Woodbridge in Suffolk, by whom he had
six children:
1.
John-Page Wood (1796–1866), who became a Church of England vicar in Essex.
His daughter Katharine Wood (1846–1921) was better known by her married name of Katharine O'Shea. Popularly known as Kitty O'Shea, her relationship with
the Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell led to a political scandal
which caused his downfall.
John's son Evelyn Wood (1838–1919) was a Field Marshal and a recipient of the Victoria Cross.
2.
Maria-Elizabeth Wood (born 1798)
3.
Catharine Wood (born 1799)
4.
William Wood, 1st Baron
Hatherley (1801–1881), a barrister and Liberal MP who served as Lord Chancellor from 1868 to 1872
5.
Western Wood (1804–1863), MP for the City of London 1861–63
6.
Henry-Wright Wood (born 1806), died an infant
Edward Moor (1771–1848) was a British soldier and Indologist,
known for his book The Hindu Pantheon, an early treatment in English
of Hinduism as a
religion.
He was a soldier for
the East India Company, joining in 1782 as a cadet. He became a brevet-captain in
1796, having been wounded in 1791 at Dooridroog, a hill fort near Bangalore,
and Gadjnoor (not Doridroog and
Gadjmoor, as stated in the Dictionary of National Biography [1]).
He was made a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1806.[2]
He married Elizabeth Lynn
on 10 July 1794. She died on 13 December 1835 and was buried in the churchyard
at Great Bealings on 19 December 1835.
He retired to Bealings
House, Great Bealings, Suffolk in 1806. His son, Canon Edward James Moor
(1800-1866) was Rector of Great Bealings from 1844 to 1886.[3]
He died in at the house of
his son-in-law, William
Page Wood, in Westminster on 26
February 1848 and was buried in the churchyard at Great Bealings on 4 March
1848
MOOR, EDWARD (1771–1848), writer on Hindoo
mythology, born in 1771, was appointed a cadet on the Bombay establishment of
the Hon. East India Company in May 1782, and sailed for India in the September
following, being then under twelve years of age. In consequence of adverse
winds the fleet in which he sailed put into Madras in April 1783, and Moor was
transferred to the Madras establishment. He was promoted lieutenant in
September 1788, and three months later adjutant and quarter-master of the 9th
battalion native infantry. Though then but seventeen, his 'very great
proficiency' in the native tongue was noticed in the certificate of the
examining committee.
On the
outbreak of war in 1790 Moor resigned his adjutancy, and proceeded in command
of a grenadier company of the 9th battalion to join the brigade under Captain
John Little, then serving with the Mahratta army at the siege of Dharwar. He
was of the storming party on the assault of that stronghold on 7 Feb. 1791, and
on 13 June he was shot in the shoulder while heading the leading company in an
assault of the hill fort Doridroog, near Bangalore. He rejoined his corps
within four months, and on 29 Dec. 1791 led the two flank companies of the 9th
battalion at the battle of Gadjmoor, where the enemy, though vastly superior in
numbers, were totally routed, and Moor was specially complimented on his
gallantry in renewing the British attack on the right. In this engagement Moor
received two wounds, and was eventually compelled to return home on sick leave.
During his consequent leisure he wrote 'A Narrative of the Operations of
Captain Little's Detachment and of the Mahratta Army commanded by Purseram Bhow
during the late Confederacy in India against the Nawab Tippoo Sultan Bahadur'
(London, 1794, 4to).
Moor
re-embarked for Bombay in April 1796, with the brevet rank of captain, and in
July 1799 he was appointed garrison storekeeper (commissary-general) at Bombay,
a post which he held with credit until his departure from India in February
1805. In 1800, at the request of Governor Duncan, he made a 'Digest of the Military
Orders and Regulations of the Bombay Army,' which was printed at the expense of
the government. The latter, on 14 Sept. 1800, awarded the compiler ten thousand
rupees for the original work, and two thousand more for the additions
subsequently made to it. The state of his health precluding his return to
India, Moor retired from the company's service in 1806, receiving a special
pension for his distinguished service in addition to his half-pay.
In 1810 Moor
published his 'Hindu Panheon' (London, roy. 4to), a work of considerable value,
which for more than fifty years remained the only book of authority in English
upon its
subject. A collection of pictures and engravings of Hindu deities formed the
nucleus of the book. Round these the author accumulated a mass of information,
partly gathered by himself, but largely derived from correspondents, and
supplemented from the works of Sir William Jones and other orientalists. Though
prolix and heavy in style and overweighted with classical parallels and irrelevancies,
its intrinsic value carried the book through several editions.
A beautiful
series of illustrative plates (engraved by J. Dadley after drawings by M.
Houghton) was edited by the Rev. A. P. Moore in 1861, London, 4to, and another
edition with fresh plates appeared at Madras in 1864. Moor's other works on
Indian subjects were 'Hindu Infanticide; an Account of the Measures adopted for
suppressing the Practice' (London, 1811, 4to), and 'Oriental Fragments' (1834),
comprising descriptions of gems and inscriptions and general reflections upon
Hindu mythology and religion. During his retirement at Great Bealings in
Suffolk he also wrote 'The Gentle Sponge' (1829, 8vo), a proposal for reducing
the interest on the national debt, and a collection of 'Suffolk Words and
Phrases' (1823, 12mo), containing many elaborate articles (e.g. cantle and
sibrit) of some interest, but little etymological value, besides several
pamphlets. He also contributed Indian articles to Rees's 'Cyclopædia.'
Moor died at
the house of his son-in-law in Great George Street, Westminster, on 26 Feb.
1848. He married, on 10 July 1794, Elizabeth, daughter of James Lynn of
Woodbridge, surgeon. By her (she died on 13 Dec. 1835) he had issue a son,
Edward J. Moor, who became rector of Great Bealings, and a daughter, Charlotte,
who married William Page Wood, son of Sir Matthew Wood, bart.
Moor was
elected a member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta in 1796, a member of the
Royal Society in 1806, and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1818. He was also a
member of other learned societies in India, England, and France.
Sir
Evelyn Wood’s ADC
Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe was born on 30 Oct 1860,
the son of the Reverend Henry Leighton Fanshawe, of Chilworth, Oxfordshire. He
was educated at Winchester College and then served in the militia, joining the
19th Hussars in 1882. He was the middle son of three brothers with significant
military careers; Edward (b. 1859) joined the artillery and Robert (b. 1863)
joined the infantry, all three rising to command corps or divisions during the
First World War.
Lieutenant-General Sir Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe, KCB, KCMG (30 October 1860 – 24
March 1957) was a British Army general of
the First World War, who commanded V Corps on the Western Front and the 18th Indian Division in the Mesopotamian Campaign. He was one of three brothers (Edward, Hew, and Robert) who all rose to command divisions or corps during
the war.
Fanshawe joined the 19th Hussars in 1882, and
after seeing active duty in North Africa became the aide-de-camp to Sir Evelyn Wood VC, a prominent senior officer; he would later
marry Wood's eldest daughter. He served with his regiment during the Boer War, and then commanded a
cavalry regiment, followed by brigades in the Home Forces and in India.
Following the outbreak of
the First World War, Fanshawe commanded a cavalry division and then
the Cavalry Corps in France, before assuming command of V Corps in late 1915. He was removed from command in
mid-1916, however, as a result of political manoeuvring following the attempt
to find a scapegoat for the failed Actions of St Eloi Craters in March 1916. He later commanded the 18th Indian Division in Mesopotamia and was with it at the end of the
war in the Middle East. He retired from the Army in 1920, and served as the
ceremonial colonel of the Queen's Bays.
He married Sir Evelyn’s
daughter, Anna Pauline Wood.
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