John Taylor and Ann Norman have submitted the following:
John Howie Wood was born on 7th July 1893, the son of William Gibbon and Martha Jane Wood of 53 High Street, Wrekenton. In 1911 he was employed as a rope minder in a coal mine while his father and older brothers were also colliery workers. His elder sister Mary Ann was a self employed dressmaker.
He enlisted on 31st May 1915 in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served with the Howe Battalion Royal Naval Division, a shore based infantry unit. His service number was Tyneside. Z./4862, and his rank was Able Seaman. He left his Battalion on 6th November 1915, suffering from dysentery. He rejoined his Battalion from 6th December 1915 to 17th February 1917, but was wounded in the left thigh and invalided back to the U.K. on 4th March 1917. He again rejoined his Battalion on 14th November 1917 but died on the 30th December 1917. His cause of death is recorded as “killed or died as a direct result of enemy action” on 30th December 1917. He is buried in plot: I. D. 15 at the Fifteen Ravine British Cemetery, Villers-Plouich, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
