Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Private Arthur Wood, 3rd Dragoon Guards, who served as servant to Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major-General Sir) Herbert Stewart in South Africa in 1879, at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882, and afterwards as a private servant to the same officer when in command of the Desert Column and at Abu Klea, shortly after which battle Stewart was mortally wounded

South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1879 (1251 Pte. A. Wood, 3rd Dragn. Gds.); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, 3 clasps, Tel-El-Kebir, The Nile 1884-85, Abu Klea (1251 Pte. A. Wood, 3rd D...) last part of naming illegible through edge bruising; Khedive’s Star 1882, edge bruising and pitting from star, otherwise better than good fine (3) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Egypt and Sudan Medals 1882-1891 from the Collection of Jack Webb.

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Private Arthur Wood appears on a two-man roll for the Zulu war medal, with The Hon. Guy Dawnay, ‘a civilian, attached as Intelligence Officer to Major Genl. Marshal’. Wood is noted as ‘Servant to Bt. Lt. Colonel Stewart’ and the roll is marked ‘It is requested that these medals may be forwarded to Lt. Colonel Stewart, 3rd Drag. Gds., Adair House, for transmission’. Stewart was Brigade Major to Major-General F. Marshall, C.M.G., commanding Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Division, throughout the operations of 1879. Stewart and Wood are the only recipients of the Zulu war medal from the 3rd Dragoon Guards.

It seems reasonable to assume that Private Wood remained with Stewart in his appointment as Chief Staff Officer to Sir George Pomeroy Colley during the First Boer War, and more particularly at Majuba Hill when Pomeroy was taken prisoner. Private Wood certainly accompanied Stewart to Egypt, where he had been appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of Cavalry, taking part in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir and the capture of Cairo. Wood is listed with three other Privates of the 3rd Dragoon Guards on a four-man roll for Egypt 1882, he being the only recipient of the clasp for Tel-el-Kebir, the roll signed by Colonel Herbert Stewart.

Private Arthur Wood, who had enlisted at Edinburgh on 20 October 1872, aged 18, transferred to the 4th Dragoon Guards on 31 July 1882, and was discharged at Brighton on 27 January 1883.

Wood accompanied Sir Herbert Stewart in a private capacity in Lord Wolseley’s Gordon Relief Expedition, when Stewart commanded the Desert Column which crossed the Bayuda from Korti to Metemmeh, and repelled the Arab attack at the battle of Abu Klea. Two days later, in action at Al-Qubbat, Stewart was mortally wounded by a bullet in the groin and died at Gakdul on 16 February 1885, the most senior casualty of the campaign. Wood’s name appears on an individual roll for The Nile and Abu Klea where he is recorded as ‘late Civilian Servant to the late Major Genl. Sir H. Stewart’, the address being given as 28 Hans Place, London SW, home of Lady Stewart. Sold with copies of all relevant rolls.