Three: Leading Cook’s Mate C. W. Wooding, Royal Navy, who lost a limb when H.M.S. Lightning was severed in two at the eastern gateway of the Thames Estuary on 30 June 1915

1914-15 Star (M.1684, C. W. Wooding, L.Ck.Mte., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (M.1684 C. W. Wooding. L.Ck.Mte. R.N.) good very fine and better (3) £100-£140

Charles William Wooding was born in Maidstone on 13 November 1889 and joined the Royal Navy as Probationary 2nd Cook’s Mate on 31 March 1910. Raised Leading Cook’s Mate on 1 September 1914, he was present aboard H.M.S. Lightning on 30 June 1915 when she struck a floating mine laid by the German submarine UC-1 off the Kentish Knock Lightvessel. The detonation killed 15 of her crew, the majority of whom were in the bow of the ship which sank quickly. The survivors took refuge in the engine room bulkhead which remained afloat long enough to be towed to Sheerness where it was later broken up.

Having lost an arm or a leg, Wooding was transferred to the books of Pembroke I and invalided to Roehampton House on 23 February 1916; at the embryonic forefront of artificial limb fitting, Roehampton House (later renamed The Queen Mary Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital at Roehampton) bore witness to the new form of industrial warfare, an eyewitness account stating:
‘Lots of men without legs at all wheeling themselves about on chairs - many without feet - two with the forehalves of both feet gone - two men without hands - lots with one leg missing - lots with one arm missing - many going about on artificial legs... somewhat awkwardly.’

Roehampton House later came under the patronage of Mrs Mary Eleanor ‘Gwynne’ Holford, Lady Falmouth and Mr. Charles Kenderdine; deeply saddened by a visit to the wards of the Millbank Military Hospital in 1915, the former was particularly taken by the words of Private Frank Chapman who had lost both arms as Ypres: ‘On the table in front of him rested two leather sockets with hooks attached... “Is this all my Country can do for me?” asked the Private’. Following a similar pathway to the blinded servicemen of St Dunstan’s, Wooding and his comrades gradually learned how to rebuild their lives and forge new careers in 24 separate trades. As one of the first entrants, he likely came under the wing of the famed designer J. F. Rowley of Chicago who was clear to point out the virtues of his new prosthetic designs, arguing, ‘The legs are built under the man. No two are alike!’

Wooding married Helen Pearcy Calder in 1925 and the couple are later recorded as living in Southall in 1939, his occupation recorded as shoemaker. He died on 17 May 1949, one of approximately 41,000 serviceman who lost one or more limbs in the Great War.