Lance Corporal Peter Wood Royal Dublin Fusiliers
Saturday 29 April 1916
On Saturday, 29th of April, 1916, Pádraig Pearse, the Irish nationalist, issued the following communiqué:
Name Rank Service No. Age
[2] Irishmen or English soldiers? : the times and world of a southern Catholic Irish man (1876-1916) enlisting in the British army during the First World War (Liverpool University Press, 1995)168.
[3] The description of the battle is based on several sources: Father William Doyle, S.J. (1922:231ff.) ; The Irish on the Somme, vol.2 (1917:130ff.) ; Literary Digest History of the World War, vol.3 (1919:172-73) ; Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918:26-30) ; Literary Digest v.52:20 May 1916, p.1484 ; Story of the Great War, vol.10 (1916:2910 ; Gas and Flame in Modern War (1918) p. 93ff.
[4] Method of wearing the PH Helmet in Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918)
[5] See Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (v.10) 1918: page 298 ; Scientific American. Suppl. 85 (1918) page 142.
[6] Irish Regiments in the Great War ; World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment ; History of the Great War. Medical Services : Diseases of the War, v. 2 (p.282-284)
The gas used was a deadly mixture of chlorine and phosgene: see Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918)
[7] Baptism: 29 Sep 1895, Mother of God and St James, Pendleton, Lancashire, England
"In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the commandants of the various districts in the City and County will order their commands to lay down arms."
The Easter Rising, the most significant armed struggle since the Rebellion of 1798, was over. To those who had shown the courage of their convictions, the dream of an independent Ireland must have seemed like the rubble which littered the streets of Dublin.
Peter was assigned to the newly formed 8th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, which was a component of the 48th Brigade in the 16th Irish Division of Kitchener's Second New Army (K2).[1]. The 8th Battalion began training at Buttevant in County Cork, and was then moved to Ballyhooly in June 1915. This "renowned tented camp" was a dismal and unhealthy affair with twelve men to a rain-soaked tent and rutted, muddy roads"[2]. Following months of training in Ireland, the 16th Division left in September 1915 for a final three months of training at Blackdown Camp near Aldershot in Surrey. On the 2nd of December, the 16th Division, proudly marching to the tunes, Garryowen, Come Back to Erin and St. Patrick's Day, was reviewed by Queen Mary. Twelve days later, the battalion received orders to depart, embarking on the 19th December, and landing at Le Havre the next day. During the early part of 1916, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were introduced to trench warfare in the Loos sector, but their baptism of fire came at Hulluch on the 27th of April.
Third Gas Attack (29 April 1916)
It was a tense night. At 3:50 am, a smoke and gas cloud, about 3,000 yards wide, came rolling across no-man's land toward the Irish trenches. The deadly concoction of chlorine and phosgene hardly had time to dissipate when a second cloud was unleashed fifteen minutes later. In a trench, known as 'The Kink', nearly every man was killed by gas, even though some were found with their gas masks in place. This was followed by an intense artillery bombardment, which lasted about ten minutes. Then, the northeasterly breeze unexpectedly reversed, and blew the gas back upon the Germans trenches, becoming like Ethelwyn Wetherald's
The 16th (Irish) Division was fortunate in the dedication and bravery of its chaplain, Father William Doyle, SJ, who described the following scene in a letter home:
"There they lay, scores of them (we lost 800, nearly all from gas) in the bottom of the trench, in every conceivable posture of human agony : the clothes torn off their bodies in a vain effort to breathe ; while from end to end of that valley of death came one low unceasing moan from the lips of brave men fighting and struggling for life."
Peter Wood gave up the struggle on the 29th of April. His body was never recovered, perhaps due to the intense shelling that followed the gas attack. He is remembered on the Loos Memorial.
The following soldiers of the 8th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, died on the 29th of April, 1916.
However, it was not the only unconditional surrender that
day. At Kut-al-Amara in Iraq, 3700 miles from Ireland's capital, the British Sixth Indian
Division, under the command of General Sir Charles Townshend, laid down its
arms to Halil Pasha of the Ottoman army. Over 10,000 men and officers were now
prisoners of war. At the time, it was the most humiliating
military disaster ever to have befallen the British Army.
On the Western Front, Lance Corporal Peter Wood of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed in action at Hulluch (Pas-de-Calais, France). He was only about 370 miles from home when he died, but it was a world away.
Lance Corporal Peter Wood (1895-1916)
Peter was born in Salford, Lancashire, England on 29 August 1895, the third of five children. He was baptized a Roman Catholic at Mother of God and St. James Church in Pendleton.[7] His father, Walter Wood, whose family came from Cheshire, was a labourer. His mother, Margaret Ann Brennan, whose parents had emigrated from Ireland in the early 1860s, was born in Salford like her husband. Margaret's father, Patrick Brennan, was born in County Leitrim, and her mother, Ann, was from County Meath. The family lived in the suburb of Pendleton at 24 Doveridge Street. Peter first worked as an assistant in a pork butchers, but shortly before the war he found employment as a carter for an established Pendleton timber merchant called Grant and Aldcroft.
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| Timber and Wood-Working Machinery v. 23 (22 Feb 1896) |
In 1914, he married Mary Jane Platt, known affectionately as Polly, at St. George’s Church, Charlestown, Pendleton. Their honeymoon was hardly over when the First World War erupted, and he enlisted in September. Peter was assigned to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and was trained in Ireland before being sent to France on 20th December 1915. He was 21 when he was killed in action, having managed to survive 132 days on the Western Front.
Battle of Hulluch [3]
First Gas Attack (27 April 1916)
Just before daybreak, the uneasy calm was shattered by the deafening roar of German artillery. The shelling was concentrated upon Irish troops, who were holding a chalk-pit salient immediately south of Hulluch. Then, just after 5 o'clock in the morning, the bombardment stopped, creating a silence that was punctuated only by birdsong. It could have been a perfect morning, with a clear blue sky and a gentle northeasterly breeze, but the light wind turned out to be a poison chalice. At 5:20, a dense pall of white smoke could be seen drifting toward the Irish positions. Within the smoke screen was poison gas. In response to a gas alert, the men donned their PH hoods [4] and waited. Behind the cloud, raiding parties of German infantry advanced, but were repulsed by withering fire.
Second Gas Attack (27 April 1916)
Thinking that the worst was over, many soldiers allegedly removed their gas masks [5] only to be surprised by another, quickly ensuing, gas attack. However, some reject this argument of "poor gas discipline" on the part of the troops, and believe that the gas hoods were deficient in the face of such a concentrated and lethal attack.[6] The second attack was preceded by an artillery bombardment and the detonation of mines, which began at about 5:55 am. Then, at about 7:00 am, a second cloud of greenish gas was released from 3,800 cannisters. It was much more toxic than the first, inflicting heavy casualties and stultifying the defenders. This time, the Bavarian troops advancing behind of the gas cloud, were successful in invading the forward trenches, which were occupied by the Inniskillings and Royal Irish of the 49th Brigade. The German attack was halted and the trenches cleared by a counter-attack of other units of the 16 Division, including the Royal Irish Rifles, Royal Munster Fusiliers and two battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Just before daybreak, the uneasy calm was shattered by the deafening roar of German artillery. The shelling was concentrated upon Irish troops, who were holding a chalk-pit salient immediately south of Hulluch. Then, just after 5 o'clock in the morning, the bombardment stopped, creating a silence that was punctuated only by birdsong. It could have been a perfect morning, with a clear blue sky and a gentle northeasterly breeze, but the light wind turned out to be a poison chalice. At 5:20, a dense pall of white smoke could be seen drifting toward the Irish positions. Within the smoke screen was poison gas. In response to a gas alert, the men donned their PH hoods [4] and waited. Behind the cloud, raiding parties of German infantry advanced, but were repulsed by withering fire.
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| Aerial view of a gas cloud released at Hulluch |
Second Gas Attack (27 April 1916)
Thinking that the worst was over, many soldiers allegedly removed their gas masks [5] only to be surprised by another, quickly ensuing, gas attack. However, some reject this argument of "poor gas discipline" on the part of the troops, and believe that the gas hoods were deficient in the face of such a concentrated and lethal attack.[6] The second attack was preceded by an artillery bombardment and the detonation of mines, which began at about 5:55 am. Then, at about 7:00 am, a second cloud of greenish gas was released from 3,800 cannisters. It was much more toxic than the first, inflicting heavy casualties and stultifying the defenders. This time, the Bavarian troops advancing behind of the gas cloud, were successful in invading the forward trenches, which were occupied by the Inniskillings and Royal Irish of the 49th Brigade. The German attack was halted and the trenches cleared by a counter-attack of other units of the 16 Division, including the Royal Irish Rifles, Royal Munster Fusiliers and two battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
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| Philip Gibbs (official war correspondent) Times, London, 1 May 1916) |
Third Gas Attack (29 April 1916)
It was a tense night. At 3:50 am, a smoke and gas cloud, about 3,000 yards wide, came rolling across no-man's land toward the Irish trenches. The deadly concoction of chlorine and phosgene hardly had time to dissipate when a second cloud was unleashed fifteen minutes later. In a trench, known as 'The Kink', nearly every man was killed by gas, even though some were found with their gas masks in place. This was followed by an intense artillery bombardment, which lasted about ten minutes. Then, the northeasterly breeze unexpectedly reversed, and blew the gas back upon the Germans trenches, becoming like Ethelwyn Wetherald's
| The wind of death that silently | |
| Enshroudeth friend and enemy. |
The 16th (Irish) Division was fortunate in the dedication and bravery of its chaplain, Father William Doyle, SJ, who described the following scene in a letter home:
"There they lay, scores of them (we lost 800, nearly all from gas) in the bottom of the trench, in every conceivable posture of human agony : the clothes torn off their bodies in a vain effort to breathe ; while from end to end of that valley of death came one low unceasing moan from the lips of brave men fighting and struggling for life."
Peter Wood gave up the struggle on the 29th of April. His body was never recovered, perhaps due to the intense shelling that followed the gas attack. He is remembered on the Loos Memorial.
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| Loos Memorial. Panel 128 |
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| Peter Wood |
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| Medal Card (click on image to enlarge) |
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| 1914-15 Star Victory Medal British War Medal |
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| Ireland's Memorial Records 1914 - 1918 The Eccles Journal reported in 1916: Mrs Wood, who resides with her sister-in-law, at 13 Long St, Swinton, has received official news that her husband, Lance-Corporal Peter Wood (Royal Dublin Fusiliers) was killed in action, in France, on April 29th. The deceased young soldier – he was only 20 years of age – enlisted in September 1914, and had been on active service for the past five months. Prior to enlisting he was a carter in the employ of Messrs Grant and Aldcroft, timber merchants, of Pendleton. His parents reside in Earl St, Pendleton, and he is better known in that locality than in Swinton. He was promoted to Lance-Corporal since arriving in France. The first information of the sad news came from a sergeant in the same company, but no details were given – Pte John Wood (Manchester regiment), an elder brother of Peter, lost his right arm through a shrapnel wound received at La Bassee in October 1914, and has now been discharged from the Army.  
Last Will and Testament
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Brothers-in-Arms
The following soldiers of the 8th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, died on the 29th of April, 1916.
Name Rank Service No. Age
BAIRD, R Lance
Corporal 16520
CARROLL, J Private 18894
PAUL, PETER Private 21435 29
TAYLOR, F Private 14025
TAYLOR, M Lance
Corporal 13994 27
CALLAGHAN, PATRICK Private 19052 32
COTTER, CORNELIUS Private 14505 36
DOYLE, J Lance
Corporal 22839
GALLAGHER, CHRISTOPHER Private 19705 19
McALINDON, HUGH Private 24559 27
MURPHY, J Private 24971
MURTAGH, CHRISTOPHER Lance
Corporal 17624 23
THORPE, HAROLD Private 14414 26
CUMMINS, D Private 18803
GRAY, EDWARD Private 23753 22
CALLENDER, B Lance
Corporal 22218
CARROLL,
CHRISTOPHER Private 23218 23
WOOD, PETER Lance Corporal 14056 21
CONNOR, PHILIP Private 16351 42
HARVEY, GEORGE Lance Corporal 24561
KEARNEY,
MICHAEL Private 19810 27
LAMBERT,
WILLIAM Private 13942
BYRNE, MICHAEL Private 18854
CONWAY, DENIS Private 25732
HAYES, THOMAS Serjeant 14496 29
JOYCE, STEPHEN Private 14471 24
LEE, LAWRENCE Lance Corporal 23488
WALSH, JACOB Private 13938 19
BRENNAN, JOHN Private 17089
KENNEDY, JAMES Private 16963
MACKEN, THOMAS Private 18807 22
McKINLEY,
JOSEPH Serjeant 13943
WALLACE, JOHN Private 8644
CAHALL,
WILLIAM Private 22643 24
HENRY, THOMAS Private 9438
HICKEY,
MICHAEL Private 21132 36
MILLER,
ALEXANDER Private 21698
HAYES, DAVID Private 22775
KELLY, THOMAS Corporal 9365
ANDREWS,
PATRICK Private 8537 24
BOYCE, EDWARD Private 14538 35
HYLAND, LUKE Private 22778
McHUGH,
STEPHEN Private 7480 30
CONROY, DANIEL Private 5726 34
KANE, THOMAS Private 19996 38
McCAHILL,
FERAGIL Private 16968
WEIR, JOHN Private 9596 19
ASHTON,
ANTHONY Corporal 10576 28
CONNELL, JAMES Private 16744 25
DALY,
CHRISTOPHER Lance
Corporal 14448
GILMORE,
PATRICK Private 18805
GOOLEY, JAMES Private 14501
O'NEILL,
MICHAEL Private 23330 20
HAIDE, JAMES Private 14006 35
O'DRISCOLL,
PATRICK Lance Corporal 13756 37
O'FRILL,
FRANCIS Private 14514 32
NAYLOR, JOHN Private 14578 36
O'REILLY,
ALEXANDER Private 21593 23
O'REILLY,
HENRY Private 12097
PICKETT, JAMES Private 16849 30
QUIGLEY,
WILLIAM Serjeant 4524
HARTE, ANDREW Private 16238 19
HANLON,
WILLIAM Private 14030
NOLAN, JAMES Private 14015 27
ROONEY,
FRANCIS Corporal 16736 25
STRANGWAYS,
GUY ERNEST Private 23387
RUSSELL,
JOSEPH Private 19097 27
TERRETT,
THOMAS Lance
Corporal 21779
SPILLANE,
EDWARD Private 22838 17
RUSSELL,
THOMAS Serjeant 14513 35
SHERIDAN, PATRICK Private 14428
TRACEY,
MICHAEL Private 22741 39
TRAINOR,
FRANCIS Private 23479
SIMPSON, JOHN Corporal 14477 30
TRAYNOR, W Private 16882
DONOHOE,
MICHAEL Private 22482
EIVERS,
WILLIAM Lance
Corporal 17098
DOYLE, JOHN Private 19972 27
FINNEGAN, JOSEPH Private 14437 36
FITZHARRIS,
THOMAS Private 14447
DUNNE, HUGH Private 22201 50
DUNNE, JOSEPH Private 14020
DOCHERTY, JOHN Co. Sgt. Major 14507 37
DOYLE, PATRICK Private 22498 18
COLE, JOHN Private 21225 21
HYNES, J Private 14530
MULLEN, SYLVESTER Lance Sgt. 14433 37
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Peter's brother, John Wood, was an Old Contemptible.
Links
Peter Wood is commemorated on the walls of the lych gate of St.Peter's Church, Swinton
IN MEMORy by Pierre Vandervelden
IN MEMORy by Pierre Vandervelden
Notes
[1] 48th Brigade (16th Irish Division): Commander: Brig. Gen. Kenneth .James Buchanan ; 8 Btn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers commanded by Lt. Col. Sir Frederick William Shaw, DSO : (buried in Rathfarnham).[2] Irishmen or English soldiers? : the times and world of a southern Catholic Irish man (1876-1916) enlisting in the British army during the First World War (Liverpool University Press, 1995)168.
[3] The description of the battle is based on several sources: Father William Doyle, S.J. (1922:231ff.) ; The Irish on the Somme, vol.2 (1917:130ff.) ; Literary Digest History of the World War, vol.3 (1919:172-73) ; Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918:26-30) ; Literary Digest v.52:20 May 1916, p.1484 ; Story of the Great War, vol.10 (1916:2910 ; Gas and Flame in Modern War (1918) p. 93ff.
[4] Method of wearing the PH Helmet in Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918)
[5] See Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (v.10) 1918: page 298 ; Scientific American. Suppl. 85 (1918) page 142.
[6] Irish Regiments in the Great War ; World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment ; History of the Great War. Medical Services : Diseases of the War, v. 2 (p.282-284)
The gas used was a deadly mixture of chlorine and phosgene: see Gas Warfare Bulletin. 1, German Methods of Offense (1918)
[7] Baptism: 29 Sep 1895, Mother of God and St James, Pendleton, Lancashire, England
Peterus Wood - filius Gaulberti Wood, Protest. & Margaritae Annae (formerly Brennan)
Born: 29 Aug 1895
Abode: 24 Doveridge St.
Godparents: Arthur Carter; Rosanna Brennan
Baptised by: Jacobo Ryan
Register: Baptisms 1883 - 1897, Page 654, Entry 175
Source: Salford Diocesan Archives
Born: 29 Aug 1895
Abode: 24 Doveridge St.
Godparents: Arthur Carter; Rosanna Brennan
Baptised by: Jacobo Ryan
Register: Baptisms 1883 - 1897, Page 654, Entry 175
Source: Salford Diocesan Archives
