Acting Bombardier, 70th Battery, Royal Field Artillery. Service no. 55240.
Early life:
Lawrence was born in Leeds around 1891. Parents Henry and Martha Jane Wood. He was a woolcomber with Messrs Merrall & Sons and living at 58, Spring Row, Oakworth in 1908. Lawrence served as a volunteer for a short while with the 3rd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, enlisting on January 29, 1908 at the age of seventeen and was discharged to the Special Reserve on 4th November 1908. He married Maud Russell at St. John’s Church, Ingrow on December 20, 1913 and the marriage was registered in Keighley in the last quarter of the year.
They had a child born in September 1914 (Lily Margaret Wood).
War service:
Lawrence re-enlisted or transferred at some time to the Royal Field Artillery as he was in service or in the Reserve when war broke out.
He left Aldershot Army Camp on August 11 and entered France with the British Expeditionary Force on August 16, 1914.
He was killed in action on August 23, 1914 whilst serving with no. 70 Battery RFA and he is buried in Givry Communal Cemetery, near the East side of the main path.
War diary for 7th Battery Royal Field Artillery, August 1914:
August 23: GIVRY (Sunday). 50th and 70th Batteries in action near VELLEREUILLE – LE – SEC. 22nd in observation E. of GIVRY – The first named batteries were subjected to a very heavy shell fire during the afternoon, 70th having 2 hostile howitzer batteries trained on it, both batteries however maintained fire. Lt’s Robinson & Durand 70th Battery wounded. 3 NCO’s/men killed. 27 NCO’s/men wounded.
24th (Monday). During the night 70th Battery which had had 3 guns damaged was withdrawn.
Lawrence was one of the 3 NCO’s killed on the 23rd of August. He was probably the first man from Keighley to die in the war, although several others from the town also died on this date or the day after and with the confusion at the time it’s possible their dates of death were recorded incorrectly in war diaries etc.
The Shipley Times, 2nd October 1914:
Keighley Artillery Man’s Death. Leaves Young Widow and Baby a Fortnight Old.
We here reproduce a photograph of Bombardier Lawrence Wood, 23 years of age, of the 70th Battery Royal Field Artillery, whose death is officially announced. Wood leaves a young widow and a baby a fortnight old, which he has never been privileged to see. Mrs Wood lives with her Mother at 9, Rock Street East, Keighley, and she received notice from the War Office on Saturday night that he had been killed in action. No date or place were mentioned. He was last in Keighley on the 4th of July. Had there been no war he would have completed his service with the colours in December next. His battery was stationed at Aldershot, and left for the front on the 10th of August. His widow received a postcard when he went to France, and she had a further brief message from him a fortnight last Sunday stating that he was well.
(The above text also appeared in the Keighley News dated 3rd October 1914, but with no photograph)
Post war:
He was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
Lawrence is remembered on the Oakworth War Memorial and Keighley’s roll of honour book in the library.
He is also named in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour.
