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The Wood brothers - two early 20th century Lafayette hand-coloured photograph portraits in leather-backed frames: Major Alger

Tayler & Fletcher

Lot 326

The Wood brothers - two early 20th century Lafayette hand-coloured photograph portraits in leather-backed frames: Major Algernon ‘Algy’ George Newcombe Wood D.S.O. (1879-1915), Essex Regiment; and Lieutenant Richard Morton Wood (1876-1908), 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. Also to include a transcript of an 1896 letter sent by Lt. Richard Wood to his father, Colonel Wood, which gives an interesting account of the period between stiff fighting at Taba's Induna and User’s Farm in 1896. (The frames 40 x 28.5 cm, the portraits 22 x 14.5 cm).Provenance: by descent through the family.Major Wood’s photograph is portrayed in Creagh’s The Distinguished Service Order (Vol. 1, p. 419) and the circumstances of his death at Suvla Bay recounted by his fellow officer Capt. John Gillam, 'I inquire how it happened, and am told that he was leaning up against the back of the trench immediately outside his dugout, his pipe in his mouth, looking at an aeroplane which was moving over our line. Suddenly a bullet strikes him in the throat; he takes his pipe out of his mouth, makes a gesture of extreme annoyance with his arm, and mutters the words “Damn it!” Then he sinks back in the arms of his sergeant-major, who is standing near him, and saying, “I am finished, sergeant-major,” quietly goes West.'Lt. Wood was a great friend of his brother officer, Capt. Oates of Antarctic fame, whose horse, ‘Angel Gabriel’, he rode to victory in the 1905 Grand Military Cup at Punchestown: ‘Gabriel was always in the leading division and fenced flippantly’ and went on to win by four lengths. Oates recalled ‘my eyes got so full of tears I could not see the horses and had to keep asking the man next to me how my horse was going’. Wood’s demise in 1908 was widely reported. The Sportsman reported, ‘At the early age of 32 a fine soldier and sportsman passed away on Monday … Lt. Wood arrived home on the 17th ult. but with indominable pluck hunted the next day, shot the next, and again hunted on the Saturday. On the latter day he had a fall and went to bed with a high temperature, which turned to influenza and pneumonia. For so young a man he had seen much active service, having been in the Matabele and Boer Wars for which he held three medals and eight clasps’. (The photograph shows him in patrol jacket with the British South Africa Company Medal and the King’s and Queen’s South Africa Medals.) The Daily Telegraph and Courier: ‘… served in Plumer’s Matabele Relief Force in 1896, gaining the medal, and with Roberts's Horse in the South African War. Lord Roberts gave him a commission in the Inniskillings in October, 1900, in recognition of his conspicuous bravery and tact. He took part in the relief of Kimberley, and participated in the operations in the Orange Free State from February to May, 1900, including the action at Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, Driefontein, Karee Siding, Vet River, and Zand River. In subsequent months be served in the Transvaal and in Orange River Colony, taking part in several engagements, including those near Johannesburg, and at Pretoria, Diamond Hill, and Wittebengen. He continued in South Africa until May, 1902, and received the Queen's medal with six clasps and the King's medal with two clasps. Lieutenant Wood was in charge of the Inniskillings’s Dublin riding school and was to have rejoined his regiment in Egypt with the rank of captain.’ The Chelmsford Chronicle (Aug. 21, 1896) – ‘THE MATABELE RELIEF FORCE - EXPERIENCES OF AN ESSEX MAN. Colonel Wood, J.P., Nithsdale, Ingatestone, has received a highly interesting letter from his eldest son, Mr. Richard Morton Wood, who is a trooper in the Matabele Relief Force. The letter is dated "User's Farm, near Buluwayo, July 15th, 1896" and the following are extracts from it: “I hope you received my two letters from Kharmi camp. Since then I have been for a long patrol. We had a very rough patrol, and a bit of stiff fighting at Taba's Induna. Our loss was four white men and seven Cape boys, and about twenty wounded. We had two seven-pounders, and about 700 men. The guns did grand work, and the natives did not relish the shells. Admiral Cringle's son was dead; also a very nice chap called Langton. He was hit in the leg, and we were carrying him in, when another shot came down the line and hit another man and glanced off his leg bone, and hit poor Langton in the stomach, which finished him. We were over three days on a cup of flour and half a tin of beef, and only had a coat to sleep on - no joke, I can tell you, as it freezes out here nearly every night now. I have been into Buluwayo and don’t think much of the place. The people have gone out of the town, and there is nothing going on. The Matabeles have some good shots among them, and it is no joke storming a hill with a good shot on the top. We gave them a fair dressing at Taba's Induna, and hope we killed some of those Matabele police, who are the chaps that do the damage. We are now camped at User's Farm, and expect to have a big hit at the natives in a week. We are always running out of food on the Iong patrols, and the last two or three days we have been on short rations. I lost two horses within the last days - both worked to death. On the days of the night we were in the saddle over 20 hours on the same horse, and the poor beggars had nothing to eat, which shows what they have to endure.”

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