Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Russell Elliot Wood, Royal Army Medical Corps, late Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, who served as a Civil Surgeon at the Battle of Ulundi

South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1879 (Civil Surgn. R. E. Wood); Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., unnamed, hallmarks for London 1919, with top brooch bar, mounted court style for wear, first with slight contact marks, very fine and better (2) £560-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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Russell Elliot Wood was born in Edinburgh in 1855. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and then at Edinburgh University where he received his medical training. Shortly after qualifying, he served as a Volunteer in the Zulu War of 1879, as a Civil Surgeon. He was present at the battle of Ulundi, 4 July 1879, and for his services he was awarded the South Africa Medal 1877-79 with clasp ‘1879’.

Returning to Edinburgh, he was for some time Resident Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, the Childrens Hospital and the Maternity Hospital. In the early 1880’s he was Physician at the New Town Dispensary in Edinburgh. Wood became a F.R.C.S., Edinburgh, in 1886.

Wood was appointed Surgeon of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1882, being promoted Surgeon Major in May 1897 and Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1903. He was awarded the T.D. on 3 May 1910. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Wood resigned his commission whilst retaining his rank on 17 June 1914. On the outbreak of the Great War he returned to service and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the R.A.M.C. (T.F.)., being attached to the 2nd/1st Lanarkshire Yeomanry. Wood served throughout the war in the U.K. and was not entitled to any of the war medals. He was the author of the Records of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry 1819-1910. Lieutenant-Colonel Wood died suddenly in Dunbar on 8 February 1917, aged 62 years. He was buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot within the Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh. Sold with copied research including copied photographs.