First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of St Andrew’s Church, Old Headington

Eric Joseph WOODS (1895–1917)

Eric Joseph Woods was born in 1895 at Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, the son of the Revd Francis Henry Woods (born at Sully in Glamorgan on 22 May 1850) and Frances Edith Pritchard (born in South Luffenham, Rutland in 1859). Both were from clerical families.

Eric’s parents were married on 2 August 1883 at Christ Church, Cheltenham and had the following children:

• George Constantine Woods (born in Oxford on 9 January 1885)
• Katharine Seymour Woods (born in Oxford on 17 September 1887)
• Olga M. Woods (born at the Vicarage in Chalfont St Peter in 1889, registered second quarter)
• Frances Alice Woods (born at the Vicarage in Chalfont St Peter in 1891, registered second quarter)
• Eric Joseph Woods (born at the Vicarage in Chalfont St Peter in 1895, registered second quarter).

Eric's father was a Fellow of St John's College from 1876 until his marriage in 1883. He appears to have spent the first five years of his marriage in Oxford, and then in 1888 he was appointed Vicar of Chalfont St Peter. At the time of the 1891 census he was living in the vicarage there with his wife and their first three children: George (6), Katharine (4), and Olga (1), plus a cook, housemaid, and nurse.

The family were still at the vicarage in Chalfont St Peter at the time of the 1901 census. The two eldest children were away at boarding school: George (16) was at Winchester, and Katharine (15) at the Corran Collegiate School in Watford (run by Eleanor Frances Jourdain, who was later to become Principal of St Hugh's College). The three youngest children were at home: Olga (11), Frances (9), and Eric himself (6). The family now had a governess, cook, and a Swiss nurse.

By 1911 Eric’s father was Rector of Bainton in Yorkshire, and he and his wife can be found in the Rectory there on census night. All of the children, however, were away: George (26) was a master at a boarding school at 50–52 Torrington Square, London, where his sister Frances Alice (19) was then boarding as a pupil; Olga (21), who was a kindergarten teacher, was paying a visit to the Vicar of Royston in Yorkshire; and Eric himself, who was now 16, was boarding at Uppingham School. Katharine (25) seems not to be recorded in the census, and may have been abroad.

In 1914 Eric matriculated at the University of Oxford from St John’s College. Shortly afterwards his father died in Yorkshire at the age of 64 (registered first quarter of 1915).

His widowed mother then moved down to Headington, primarily so that Eric’s sister, Katharine Seymour Woods, could also attend the University of Oxford.

The family lived at Rogate at 110 (formerly 36) London Road (left). Their house is on the right of this pair, both of which were demolished to make way for the Iceland block.

In the First World War Eric Woods volunteered for action and commenced service on 10 April 1915 as a lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own). (The Commonwealth War Graves Commission states that he was in “B” Company of the 9th battalion, while the University Roll of Service states that he was in the 17th battalion.)

He was killed in action at Poelcapelle near Passchendaele in Belgium at the age of 22 on 9 October 1917, but his death was not confirmed until January 1918.

He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing (Panel 42 to 47 and 162) in Belgium, and on the roll of honour of St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington. His mother put the following notice in The Times of 29 January 1918:

WOODS.—Killed in action, on the 9th Oct., 1917, previously reported missing, Eric Joseph Woods, Lieut., West Yorks Regt., beloved younger son of the late Rev. F. H. Woods, B.D., Rector of Bainton, Yorks, and formerly fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, and of Mrs. Woods, Rogate, Headington, Oxford, aged 22.

Administration was granted in London to his widowed mother, Frances Edith Woods, on 2 June 1919 . He left £910 15s. 6d.