Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/364

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of Flushing and its capture on 14 Aug. He was knighted on 22 May 1812. He commanded the royal artillery of the army under Sir Thomas Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) [q. v.] which co-operated with the allies in Holland and Flanders. Landing at Rotterdam in December 1813, he was at the siege of Antwerp in January 1814, and at the action of Merxem on the 13th of that month. He was at the unsuccessful assault on Bergen-op-Zoom on 8 March, and the subsequent blockade of that place and of Antwerp. For his services he received brevet promotion, and was made an aide-de-camp to the king.

In 1815 Wood commanded the whole of the royal artillery in the Waterloo campaign, in the battles of Quatre Bras (16 June) and of Waterloo (18 June), in the march to Paris and the operations against the fortresses of Maubeuge, Landrecy, Marienbourg, Philippeville, and Cambray, and at the entry into Paris on 7 July. For his services in this campaign Wood was mentioned in despatches, was made a C.B., received the Waterloo medal, and was permitted to accept and wear the insignia of the fourth class of the order of St. Wladimir of Russia, the third class of the order of Wilhelm of the Netherlands, and the knighthood of the order of Maria Theresa of Austria; and in the following year he was made a knight commander of the royal Hanoverian Guelphic order. He commanded the British artillery of the army of occupation in France until 1819, when he returned to England. He was appointed governor of Carlisle on 18 June 1825. He died in London on 22 April 1831.

[War Office Records; Despatches; Royal Artillery Records; Royal Military Calendar, 1820; Duncan's History of the Royal Artillery; Siborne's Waterloo Campaign; Gent. Mag. 1831.]

R. H. V.

WOOD, Mrs. HENRY (1814–1887), novelist. [See Wood, Ellen.]

WOOD, HERBERT WILLIAM (1837–1879), major royal engineers, son of Lieutenant-colonel Herbert William Wood of the Madras native infantry, was born in India on 17 July 1837. Educated at Cheltenham College, he joined the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe in February 1854, received a commission as second lieutenant in the Madras engineers on 20 Sept. 1855, and, after the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham, arrived at Madras on 26 Oct. 1857. He was at once posted to the Sagar field division under Major-general Whitlock acting against the mutineers, and was present at the affairs of Jhigan on 10 April 1858 and Kabrai, at the battle of Banda on the 19th, the capture of Kirwi on 6 June, the action in front of Chitra Kote, the forcing of the Panghati Pass, and subsequent action. He was promoted to be lieutenant on 27 Aug. 1858, and continued to do duty with the column until March 1859, receiving the medal for the campaign.

After employment as executive engineer in the public works department in the North-West Provinces, he was transferred to Madras in 1860. He was promoted to be captain on 15 Jan. 1864. He served as field engineer in the Abyssinian campaign from January to June 1868, succeeding Captain Chrystie in charge of the works at Zulla, was thanked in despatches, and received the war medal. In December 1872 he was appointed to Vizagapatam, and on 24 Aug. of the following year he was promoted to be major. Obtaining three years' furlough, he accompanied the Grand Duke Constantine's expedition, sent under the auspices of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society to examine the Amu Darya. He published in 1876 the results of his travels in an octavo volume entitled ‘The Shores of Lake Aral,’ which attracted attention at the time, and should be read by all who would thoroughly understand the difficulties with which the Russians have to contend in Central Asia.

Wood returned to India in June 1876, but, after serving in the Madras presidency in a bad state of health, he was seized with paralysis and died on 8 Oct. 1879 at Chingleput. Wood was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal and Imperial Russian Geographical societies, and a corresponding member of the Society of Geography of Geneva. He issued at Geneva in 1875 a short account in French of the bed of the Amu Darya.

[India Office Records; Royal Engineers' Records; Despatches; Royal Engineers' Journal (obituary notice), 1879; Times, 5 Nov. 1879; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1880; Ann. Reg. 1879.]

R. H. V.

WOOD, JAMES (1672–1759), nonconformist minister, known as ‘General’ Wood, son of James Wood (d. 1695), nonconformist minister, by his wife Anne (d. 19 May 1724), was born at Atherton, Lancashire, in 1672. The surname is often, but erroneously, given as Woods. His grandfather, James Wood, ejected (1662) from the perpetual curacy of Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, died on 10 Feb. 1666–7, and was buried in Graffenhall church, Cheshire, where his wife Alice