This Is Your Life: James Edward Wood

Sergeant James Edward WOOD (1882-?)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - James Edward Wood, former Army sergeant, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre.

James was born in Sandbach, Cheshire, and moved to Manchester at the age of 14 to find work in a Salford factory before enlisting with the Durham Light Infantry in 1900. Within weeks of signing up, he fought in the Boer War in South Africa. He later spent time in Lucknow in India before seeing action in the trenches at Ypres in Belgium during the First World War, where he was promoted to sergeant.

James left the army in 1919, got married and settled in the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire, where he was elected to the Parish Council, and found work as a bus driver in Tring. During the Second World War, he worked as a fireman with the Tring Volunteer Fire Brigade while continuing as a bus driver throughout the blackout. James retired after the war and, when his wife died, successfully applied for admittance as an in-pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

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