Henry Evelyn Wood only served in the 13th Light Dragoons
for 2 years, from September 1855 to October 1857. It was his
first Army unit, having been a Midshipman in the Navy and a naval
cadet before that. It was as a 16 year old Midshipman that he had
his first experience of war. He was part of a 1400-man Naval Brigade
sent to the Crimea in 1854. He manned 68 and 32 pounder guns
positioned on a ridge facing Sebastopol, coming under fire himself.
He wrote home that he was nervous at first but after a week, 'was
conscious of a decided feeling of exultation in the presence of danger'.
Wood was recommended for a VC but did not receive it at this time.
To add injury to insult, he was severely wounded by case-shot just
below the elbow. The doctors wanted to amputate but he refused to
let them and he was invalided home.
Wood was a passionate hunter and it is perhaps, for this reason that
he decided to join the cavalry. When he reported to the 13th Light
Dragoons at their depot in Dorchester he still had his arm in a sling.
He did not gamble, smoke, or drink but had to pay his full share of
the mess costs. Most officers at the time had a private income
in excess of '400, Wood's father, a clergyman, could only afford to
give him '250.
At the end of 1855 wood was ordered to the Crimea. He arrived
at Scutari on 22 January 1856 and found himself in hospital with
pneumonia and typhoid fever within a month. His parents were notified
that he was terminally ill. Although he was attended by a soldier servant
and two female nurses, his treatment, at times, was brutal. He had
become so emaciated that the bones of both hips had come through the
skin, and one of Miss Nightingale's nurses, instead of wetting the lint
before changing it, simply ripped it off, tearing away the flesh and drawing
blood. His mother, Lady Wood, arrived at Scutari on 20th March and went
to his bedside to find a nurse striking her son as he lay in his bed. She was
a woman of exceptional vitality and determination and flew into a fury at
the nurse. Evelyn was shipped home against all the doctors' advice and
began to improve before reaching England.
An uncle paid for his promotion to Lieutenant and he returned to the 13th
at the end of 1856 while they were in Ireland. When the Indian Mutiny
broke out, Wood joined the 17th Lancers as he was keen to see some
action. He proved his bravery many times over, winning the VC in 1859
after rescuing a rich landowner from a large band of robbers in a Sironj
jungle.
He saw action in the Ashanti War of 1873-4, the Zulu War of 1879 and the
Egyptian expeditions. He was responsible for the peace negotiations at the
end of the first Boer War in 1881, a task he carried out with his hands
tied (so to speak) and which made him very unpopular. Wolseley referred
to the treaty as ignominious and thought Wood should have resigned his
commission. But he was in favour with the politicians and with the Queen.
The ordinary soldier had much reason to thank Evelyn Wood. In his position
as Quartermaster-General (1893) and later Adjutant-General (1895) he
brought about many changes that improved the quality of life for the
soldiers of the British Army, especially the medical facilities and sanitary
arrangements. He reached the rank of Field-Marshal in April 1903 and
effectively retired in December 1904. Sir H. Evelyn Wood VC GCB GCMG
died peacefully in essex at the age of 81.
