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This data is related to World War 2
Officer Cadet

Reginald John Owen Wood

Service number 7945312
Military unit 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Royal Armoured Corps
Address 22 Park Avenue, Mansfield
Date of birth 23 Jun 1921
Date of death 27 Jan 1943 (21 years old)
Place of birth Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Employment, education or hobbies

Attended Queen Elizabeth School from 1935 to 1938. At the outbreak of the war Reginald volunteered as a driver for the British Red Cross and served at home and in France were he helped in the evacuation from Dunkirk. He was also an air raid warden.

Family history

He was the only son of Capt Charles Eustace Owen and Doris Wood of 22 Park Avenue, Mansfield. Charles had served in the Royal Engineers.
In his will he left £375 2s 9d to his mother.

Military history

Old Elizabethans Service Roll:
Officer Cadet Wood had just completed the Officer's Training course at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy and was awaiting gazette as an officer in the 4/7th Dragoon Guards . Whilst out on a training exercise with his troop he was thrown from his tank and was caught up in the tracks. Owing to severity of his injuries he died.

Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser: 4/2/1943: Gun Hit Tree And Mansfield Cadet Was Killed.
Cadet Reginald John Owen Wood aged 21 of Mansfield, a member of a Royal Armoured Corps of the O.C.T.U. was stated at the inquest held at Aldershot to have been riding in an exercise outside the tank and to have been knocked off when the gun, which was traversed almost at right-angles struck a tree causing the turret to spin around. He became entangled between one of the tracks and sprocket wheels.
Capt Hart said he did not consider it unduly dangerous for Wood to ride outside the tank. He was experienced and had almost completed his training. There was no order against directing staff riding in this way.
Recording a verdict "Accidental Death" the coroner remarked "training for war is a dangerous business and there must be accidents".

Extra information

The interment took place on January 29th , the service being conducted by the military chaplins in the College chapel after which the coffin was conveyed on a gun carriage to the cemetery were it was interred with full military honours.
Newly commissioned officers of his own troop acted as pall bearers and the staff and cadets of the college were in attendance.

Photographs

No photos