Albert Wood

Private. 18363. Northumberland Fusiliers.

Born: 1885

Only Son of Mrs. Fred Wood of 130 Scar Lane, Golcar.

Address: Rock Fold. 81 Station Road, Golcar.

Occupation: Employed by John Lockwood & Son. Milnsbridge.

Husband of M. Wood (nee Higgins) of 179 Thornton St, Miles Platting, Manchester.

Father of two children.

Enlisted in 1914.

Died: 17th May 1917. Aged 32.

Buried at Railway Dugouts (Transport Farm) Burial Ground. Belgium. Special Memorial D32.

After serving in France for a while he was invalided home and was in hospital in Glasgow. He returned to France in October 1916.

Mrs Wood received letters from the Chaplain, Albert's Commanding Officer and his sergeant, telling her that in the middle of a massive bombardment, a shell burst in the trench, killing him instantly. He attended Milnsbridge Baptist Chapel. His widow and children have now moved to Manchester.

The cemetery is 2 km west of the village of Zillebeke, beside the railway line from Komen to Ypres where it runs on an embankment overlooking a small farmstead known to the troops as Transport Farm. Burials there began in 1915 and continued until the Armistice, especially 1915 and 1917 when Advanced Dressing Stations were placed in dug outs and the farm. Burials were made in small groups and in the summer of 1917 a considerable number were obliterated by shell fire before they could be marked. The cemetery now contains 2,459 Commonwealth burials from WW1. 430 are unidentified and 261 are represented on the Special Memorial.

Railway Dugouts Burial Ground.