Percival Barnes Wood (22 December 1901 – 9 June 1941), known as "Barney", was an Australian sportsman who played both

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

. He was killed in action while serving with the Second AIF.

Family

One of four children, and the son of Robert Ellis Wood (1866–1944), and Nellie Elizabeth Wood (1872–1943), née Heywood, Percival Barnes Wood was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on 22 December 1901.

Education

Educated at

Melbourne Grammar School (Pray and Work) , established = 1849 (on present site since 1858 - the celebrated date of foundation) , type = Independent, co-educational primary, single-sex boys secondary, day and boarding , denominatio ...

from 1911 to 1920, he was a prefect in 1919 and 1920, was the school's boxing champion on 1920, and played in the school's First XVIII from 1917 to 1920.Batchelder (1995), p.23.

Football

Old Melburnians (MAFA)

He played for

Old Melburnians Football Club The Old Melburnians Football Club, also known as Old Melburnians, is an Australian rules football club composed of Melbourne Grammar School alumni, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The team is, along with Old Caulfield Grammarians, the (equ ...

for several years. In 1925, he played in the centre, and was one of the best on the ground, for a combined Metropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA) team against a combined South Australian Amateur Football League (SAAFL) team at the M.C.G. on 8 June 1925. Although he had been selected in the 1926 MAFA team to play against South Australia, in Adelaide, Wood surrendered his position in the team as he was unable to leave Melbourne for the trip to Adelaide.

Melbourne (VFL)

Wood was recruited to the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

from Old Melburnians in 1928; he appeared in five senior games.

Perth (WAFA)

He moved to Western Australia in 1928 for business reasons, where he played 20 matches for the

Perth Football Club The Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club based in Lathlain, Western Australia, currently playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Representing the south-east area of the Perth metropol ...

in 1929.

Cricket

Well-regarded as a schoolboy cricketer, he played cricket for the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground ...

from 1921/1922 until 1928/1929. He toured New Zealand with a Melbourne Cricket Club team in 1927; and, in a match against Taranaki, he top-scored with 75 runs. The score included eight sixes, five of which were hit in successive scoring shots. At the age of 31, on 19 March 1932 he made his first-class cricket debut in a match for Western Australia against the touring

South African national cricket team The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...

at the

WACA Ground The WACA (formally the WACA Ground) is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The stadium's name derives from the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association. The WACA has been referred to as Wester ...

. He was dismissed for six in the first innings by

Cyril Vincent Cyril Leverton Vincent (16 February 1902 – 24 August 1968) was a South African cricketer who played in 25 Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricke ...

and for two in the second by

Denys Morkel Denijs Paul Beck Morkel (25 January 1906 – 6 October 1980) was a South African cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end ...

. In February 1932, when batting for the West Perth Cricket Club, he scored 132 runs.

Boxing

He fought for the Amateur Welterweight championship of Victoria on 21 July 1923. He lost the bout to a controversial decision.

Motor sport

Wood was also the joint holder of several Transcontinental Motoring records, established with Dr. Alan MacKay, in 1927, in an Essex Super Six.

Military service

He enlisted in the RAAF in 1939, and transferred to the Army in 1940. Wood was a Sergeant in the 2/16th Battalion of the Second AIF. He was killed in action, on 9 June 1941, during the

Battle of the Litani River The Battle of the Litani River (9 June 1941) was a battle of the Second World War that took place on the advance to Beirut during the Syria-Lebanon campaign. The Australian 7th Division, commanded by Major-General John Lavarack, crossed the Li ...

. :: From what I heard, he went out in the way you would expect of him – in the very

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

where things were hottest, and in front of his men he got what he was apparently destined for. No one could ever question his courage. I only wish I had half as much myself.
He was, I gather, wounded, and was being treated by the first-aid men, when a mortar came along and completely wiped out the whole party. He would know nothing about it. He met the finest fate a man can meet – a quick and painless death in the face of the enemy. We all know that this is the way he would have chosen it.

Legacy

* Golfers in the annual Anzac Day event at the

Royal Perth Golf Club Royal Perth Golf Club is a golf club in South Perth, Western Australia. The club started in the 1895 and was established in South Perth in 1909. It was granted permission to use the appellation "Royal" in 1937. See also *List of golf clubs gran ...

play for the ''Barney Wood Memorial Trophy'', named in Wood's honour in 1941. Wood had been elected the Club's captain in 1935; and the cup had originally been presented to Wood, himself, at the end of his term as club captain.McCrery (2017), p.59.
/ref>

Footnotes

References

Brown, Frank, ''Australian Corinthian'', ''The Sporting Globe'', (Saturday, 25 February 1928), p.6.

Late Sgt. "Barney" Wood was a Fine Sportsman, ''The Dandenong Journal'', (Wednesday, 2 July 1941), p.5.

Popular Sportsman: Death of Sergeant B. Wood, ''The West Australian'', (Tuesday, 24 June 1941), p.6.

Roll of Honour: Percy Barnes Wood (WX4544), ''Australian War Memorial''.

''Commonwealth War Graves Commission'', Sergeant Wood, Percy Barnes (WX4544).

World War Two Nominal Roll: Sergeant Percy Barnes Wood (WX4544).
note that it shows his year of birth as 1905.
Batchelder, A., ''Melbourne Cricket Club: Roll of Honour 1939–1945'', Melbourne Cricket Club, (Melbourne), 1995.
* Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. ''Melbourne: Bas Publishing'' 7th edition. * Main, J. & Allen, D., "Wood, 'Barney' Percy", pp. 353–355 in Main, J. & Allen, D., ''Fallen – The Ultimate Heroes: Footballers Who Never Returned From War'', Crown Content, (Melbourne), 2002. * McCrery, N., ''The Coming Storm: Test and First-Class Cricketers Killed in World War Two'', Pen and Sword, (Barnesley), 2017.

External links

* *
''Demonwiki'' Profile: Barney Wood.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Barney 1901 births 1941 deaths People educated at Melbourne Grammar School Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Old Melburnians Football Club players Melbourne Football Club players Perth Football Club players VFL/AFL players born outside Australia New Zealand players of Australian rules football Australian cricketers Western Australia cricketers Australian military personnel killed in World War II New Zealand emigrants to Australia Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers