Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War tunnelling operations M.C. group of six awarded to Major A. S. W. Wood, Royal Engineers: taken P.O.W. with the B.E.F. in 1940, he was twice incarcerated at Colditz between 1941-44, where, no doubt, his former expertise in tunnelling was put to good use

Military Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, with original campaign medal boxes of issue, M.C. forwarding letter and R.E. cap badge, good very fine and better (7) £1500-2000

M.C. London Gazette 22 March 1918.

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When eleven men were imprisoned in a mine he went down and worked for twelve hours organising their rescue, and made four attempts to reach the men himself. He only desisted from his attempts at rescue when physically exhausted and suffering from the effects of gas.’

Arthur Sharman Walton Wood was born in May 1890 and was educated at Haileybury. As verified by the war diary of 170th Tunnelling Company, R.E., he won his M.C. on 25-26 September 1917, when the enemy discharged gas down a tunnel his unit was digging under their reserve line. The officer who took over from Wood died as a result of gas poisoning, as did the entire trapped party of eleven men - four of them were French miners.

Between the Wars Wood pursued his interest in music, becoming an Associate of the Royal School of Music at South Kensington, but he was called up on the renewal of hostilities and granted a Regular Army commission as a Lieutenant, R.E. in November 1939. By the time he joined the B.E.F. out in France, however, he was an Acting Major. Subsequently taken P.O.W. in late May 1940, he found himself entering the hallowed portals of Colditz Castle in August 1941, where he remained until March 1943; and once again in June 1943, this time until April 1944, an honour most likely bestowed upon him for earlier escape work. Indeed with his obvious knowledge of tunnelling it seems probable that he would have been regularly consulted by successive British escape officers.

Just a few days after Wood’s arrival at Colditz in August 1941, Airey Neave made his bold - but unsuccessful - attempt to escape disguised as a German Lance-Corporal. And in the following month Lieutenant-Colonel G. German, S.B.O., Squadron Leader B. Paddon and a Major A. Anderson started a tunnel in the kitchen basement. This, too, failed, but proved that senior officers were as keen as any one to get involved in escape activity. January 1942 witnessed two “home runs” from Pat Reid’s now famous theatre escape route, via the Kommandantur, noisy, diversionary musical entertainment being an important part of the plan - did Wood bring his Royal School of Music skills to use?; while in July of the same year one of Wood’s probable topics of conversation would have been the failed tunnelling attempt from the British senior officers’ quarters.

A spate of more “home runs” was achieved before Wood was moved, for reasons unknown, in March 1943, but he was back inside the bleak castle three months later, shortly before work to re-open the old French chapel tunnel began - very much an engineering job. He was also back in time for another famous episode, Mike Sinclair’s failed attempt to impersonate “Franz Joseph”, an elderly German officer. In fact between June 1943 and Wood’s second departure from the scene in April 1944, escape activity continued apace, the “Whitechapel Deep” and “Crown Deep” tunnel attempts being very much up his street; well worthy of further research.