Colonel Charles Knight Wood

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1 July 1851 – 12 February 1923) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Early life

Born in

Ledbury Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills. It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Street ...

, Wood was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

, and was a player in the college's cricket XI and

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

XX in 1869. He went to the

Woolwich Academy The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

, where he proved distinguished in both military and academic matters, winning the Silver Bugle (for highest marks) in 1872 and the Despatch Box (for athletic excellence) in both 1871 and 1872. He was the younger brother of Elliott Wood and was usually known as "C.K.".

Sporting career

Wood joined the Royal Engineers in 1872 and was quickly recruited for its football side, his first recorded match for the Sappers being a 3–0 win in the first round of the

1872–73 FA Cup The 1872–73 Football Association Challenge Cup was the second staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest national football tournament. Sixteen teams entered, one more than the previous season, although two of the sixteen never actually played a ma ...

over the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in November 1872 at the Chatham Lines. His position was on the right-side of the forward line, and by 1874 had formed a formidable partnership with

Pelham von Donop Lieutenant-Colonel Pelham George von Donop (28 April 1851 – 7 November 1921) was a British Army officer in the Royal Engineers and later Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways. He represented the Royal Engineers at association football, appeari ...

, Wood usually playing in advance of von Donop. Wood was on the losing side of the

1874 FA Cup final The 1874 FA Cup final was a football match between Oxford University and Royal Engineers on 14 March 1874 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the third final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup ...

, the Sappers going down to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, but he collected a winner's medal in the

1875 FA Cup final The 1875 FA Cup Final was a football match between Royal Engineers and Old Etonians on 13 March 1875 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the fourth final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (known i ...

, although he only played in the semi-final and final, albeit both in the original ties and in the replays. The Cup final replay was his penultimate match in the competition. His final competitive match was also his final recorded game for the Sappers, in a surprise 3–1 defeat to the

Swifts Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

Kennington Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it ...

in the 1875–76 third round. In 1879, Wood was posted to

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, fortuitously with von Donop, and the two renewed their partnership on the tennis court, winning the Bermuda Open doubles. He also played cricket for the M.C.C. in 1886, taking six wickets in the second innings against

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

, as well as being a regular for the Royal Engineers side in the 1870s and early 1880s.

Military career

Wood served with the Royal Engineers in the

Nile Expedition The Nile Expedition, sometimes called the Gordon Relief Expedition (1884–85), was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. Gordon had been sent to the Sudan to help Egyptians evacuate from Sudan af ...

in 1884–85, and the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

between 1899 and 1901. In the latter conflict he sustained a permanent injury to his leg, and was awarded the

Queen's South Africa Medal The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps wer ...

with six clasps; he retired in 1904 with the rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

. He was made an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in the military division in the 1919

New Year's Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

Later life

Wood married Lillian Arden on 16 February 1887, in

Dunsford Dunsford is a village in Devon, England, just inside the Dartmoor National Park. The place-name 'Dunsford' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Dunesforda'', meaning 'Dunn's ford'. The village has a number of ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, with whom he had 2 sons, one of whom died in 1918 while in the Colonial Service. Wood, a "fine and versatile actor", died on 12 February 1923, in

Bodenham Bodenham is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, and on a bend in the River Lugg, about seven miles south of Leominster. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,024, reducing to 998 at the 2011 census. The vill ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

, of

bronchial pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity of ...

, just a week after he was starring in a charity play at the Kemble Theatre in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Charles 1851 births 1923 deaths Men's association football forwards Officers of the Order of the British Empire English men's footballers Royal Engineers A.F.C. players Royal Engineers officers People from Ledbury Footballers from Herefordshire Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 19th-century British Army personnel 20th-century British Army personnel Military personnel from Herefordshire British Army colonels