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Stanley Harold Wood lived in Great Waltham and Boreham before coming to Chelmsford. During the war he served in the army and was killed in action in France in May 1918. His home was in Park Avenue.

WOOD, STANLEY HAROLD,

Lance Corporal, 1/6th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers

On 31st May 1918 news of his death appeared in a family announcement in the Essex Weekly News:

“Wood. - On the 19th May, Lance-Corpl. S. H. Wood, Northumberland Fusiliers, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Wood, of 38, Park-av., Chelmsford.

Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me. When shall my labours have an end? Thy joys when shall I see? Favourite words of the dear boy. - From his sorrowing Parents, Sisters, and Brothers.”

The same edition also reported:

“Lance-Corpl. S. H. Wood, Northumberland Fusiliers, killed instantaneously on May 19, was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Wood, of 38 Park.-av., Chelmsford. The Chaplain, writing to his mother, says: ‘He was killed during a German raid while doing his duty as a soldier.’ Deceased has served three years in the Army.”

On 7th June 1918 the Essex County Chronicle reported:

“Lce.-Cpl. S. H. Wood, Northumberland Fusiliers, killed during a German raid, was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Wood. of 38 Park Avenue, Chelmsford.”

Stanley was born in Great Waltham in 1898, the eldest son of groom John Wood and Jessie Jane Wood (nee Bareham). He was christened at Great Waltham on 3rd April 1898. At the time his father was a groom living at Great Waltham.

His father had been born in 1875 in Great Waltham; his mother in 1864 in Kelvedon. The couple had married on 23rd September 1896 at Great Waltham, when Stanley’s father was aged 21, a groom of Great Waltham, and the son of Daniel Wood, a labourer. His mother was said to be aged 27, a servant of Marylebone, London, and the daughter of the brick maker George Bareham.

Stanley’s three siblings were Christine May Wood (born in 1899 in Great Waltham), Evelyn Jessie Wood (born in 1900 in Great Waltham, died in 1961) and Courtney John Wood (born in 1901 in Great Waltham, died in 1962).

At the time of the 1901 census three year-old Stanley was living with his parents and two siblings at Minnow End, Great Waltham, where his father was still employed as a groom. A decade later the next census found 13 year-old Stanley living with his parents, two siblings a lodger at The Street in Boreham. Stanley’s father was groom.

Stanley enlisted into the army at Brentwood. He was killed in action on 19th May 1918 while serving as Corporal 45117 in the 1/6th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was aged 20.

He is buried at La Ville-Aux-Bois British Cemetery, Aisne in France (grave: II. E. 2). Stanley is commemorated on the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford and by the Chelmsford Parish Great War Memorial in Chelmsford Cathedral. He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals.

The 1918 register of electors listed Stanley’s parents at 38 Park Avenue, Chelmsford (later renumbered as 52 and is today’s number 9).

His mother died in 1920.

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