WW1 Corporal Reginald Delmage Pell Woods 92504

Corporal Reginald Delmage Pell Woods [1]

Reginald Delmage Pell Woods was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 27 June 1886 to an Irish born father, Samuel Wesley and Australian born mother, Charlotte Elizabeth Woods (nee Anthoness) and the family later moved to Ellerslie Park Road, Ellerslie, Auckland, New Zealand.


He attended Remuera Primary School. [1] Reginald married Dora Christina Woods (nee Madden, 1889 – 1983) at Otahuhu, on 1 December 1913. They lived at 55 Clonbern Road, Remuera, Auckland. Reginald and Dora had two children, Isabel Ruth, born on 11 January 1915 and Peter Reginald, born on 16 July 1918. (In World War II, Peter Reginald Woods, service number 22759, was a Sergeant in the 21st Battalion, and died of injuries at the age of 23 on 11 January 1942, in Italy, where he is buried in the Caserta War Cemetery, Italy, VI,C,2) [2]

On 30 May 1918, the 31-year-old, Reginald Delmage Pell Woods, a South British Insurance Company Clerk, registered his interest in joining the New Zealand Defence Force. He officially enlisted on 10 October 1918 in Auckland. He entered the Army as a Private, and a month later was promoted to Corporal in B Company, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, at the Training Unit in Trentham. He was described as 5ft 9inches tall, with blue eyes, brown hair and fair complexion. A month later, on 8th November 1918, sadly, Reginald became ill and was admitted to Trentham Military Hospital for 17 days and died on 24 November 1918 of influenza and cerebro-spinal fever in the Cottage Isolation Ward Trentham Military Camp [1, 2] At that time, the 1918 influenza pandemic was raging throughout the world killing more than 50 million people, including New Zealand, where 9,000 died. It is New Zealand’s worst disease disaster to date, peaking during November 1919, and in September 1918, the Trentham Military Camp, reported that there were 400 influenza cases [3, 4, 5, 6]

Woods — Wargraves [2]


Reginald’s death was published in the Evening Post of 26th November 1918, in the New Zealand Herald on the 29 November 1918 [7, 8] There was also a bereavement notice from his wife, mother and sister: Wish to sincerely thank their many friends for kind expressions of sympathy in their sad loss [9] Reginald Delmage Pell Woods is buried in the Karori Cemetery, Wellington, New Zealand, D. 37. (S). He is remembered in the Auckland War Memorial Museum World War I Hall of Memories, and on the Remuera Primary School World War One Gates 1914 – 1918, 25 Dromorne Road, Remuera, Auckland.