A/Cpl Herbert Wood

151st (Central Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force

Henry Herbert Harry Wood was born on 23 September 1895, in Chatham, Kent. He was the tenth of Frederick Louis Wood's thirteen children, and was ten years old when he emigrated with his parents to Canada in 1905. Within the family, he was known as "Burt".

When war broke out, Herbert was almost nineteen years old, and was living in Edmonton, Alberta . He was working as a teamster, and was already active in the local militia, as a member of the 19th Alberta Dragoons. On 29 December 1915, he reported to the Edmonton South recruiting centre, and enlisted as No.624177 Private Wood in the 151st (Central Alberta) Bn of the CEF. (Herbert's youngest brother, Charles, enlisted in the same battalion four days later, and they served together for most of their first year in the Army.) On his attestation papers, Herbert is described as 6 feet tall, 165lbs, with fair hair, fair complexion and grey eyes. He signed up for $1 per day, and assigned $20 per month to go directly to his mother.

On 24 April 1916, Herbert was transferred from the 151st Bn to "B" Company, 13th Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR). Herbert and Charles embarked for Europe together on S.S.Olympic, and they arrived in Liverpool on 5 July 1916. Upon arrival they were assigned to Lord Strathcona's Horse (The Royal Canadians), and based at Shorncliffe, near Folkestone in their native Kent.

S.S. Olympic - sister ship of the S.S. Titanic. Charles and Herbert Wood sailed together to England on the SS Olympic in June/July 1916. Their brother Percy later embarked for Europe aboard the same liner.

Herbert's superiors rated his military character as "Very Good", and on 13 Jan 1917 he was promoted to Acting Corporal. Four months later, Herbert was preparing to be assigned to the Western Front. He prepared his will, leaving his real estate and other assets to his mother Charlotte, and underwent routine medical tests to prove he was fit to be sent to fight. Herbert's tests unexpectedly revealed that his vision in both eyes was defective, and that he was possibly suffering from rheumatism in the hips and back. His fitness for duty was down-graded to Bii, and instead of being sent to the Western Front, Herbert found himself being issued with glasses and sent to London to train as an Army cook.

In July and August 1917, Herbert worked as a cook in the Officers' Mess of the Canadian Reserve Cavalry Regiment in Shorncliffe, but his eyesight was not improved even with glasses, and he continued to suffer rheumatic pain. On 20 August he was transferred to the 1st Canadian Discharge Depot in Buxton, in preparation for discharge to Canada. On 26 August 1917, he left Liverpool for Quebec. On arrival back in Canada, Herbert became a patient at Strathcona Military Hospital in Alberta, and on 1 October 1917 he was transferred to the Edmonton Military Convalescent Home, where he underwent a detailed medical examination on 5 November. A Medical Board convened four days later to assess the results, and to consider whether Herbert was fit enough to serve in any capacity in the CEF. The Board found that Herbert was generally healthy in all aspects except his eyesight, where he was severely long-sighted with high-degree astigmatism in both eyes. The Board ruled that the tests Herbert had undergone in the barracks at Shorncliffe had severely underestimated the degree to which his vision was defective, and that Herbert's eyesight was so limited that it could not be corrected with glasses sufficiently to meet the standard required for military service. They found that his condition pre-existed his enlistment in 1915, and declared that he should never have been accepted for service. Herbert was reclassified as "E - unfit for service", and discharged from the CEF on 30 November 1917.

Herbert prepared his will on 4 May 1917, in preparation for an apparently-imminent transfer to the Western Front.

On leaving the Army, Herbert returned to his pre-war home at 10720-125th St, Edmonton. The Edmonton area would remain his home for the rest of his long life. Herbert married, and raised one daughter there. He retired to Rich Valley, Alberta, and died there in about 1980.

Burt Wood and his sister Ellen celebrating Ellen's 86th birthday, during a 1975 visit by Ellen to Alberta.

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