Roland holds a baton under his arm and stares at us with apprehension
Roland Walter Woods 1895 – 1915 (A family from Plough Lane, Wokingham, Roland is not mentioned on the Wokingham War Memorial)
Roland was the eldest of three boys and three girls to Charles and Eleanor Woods, a family which had moved around in the area from Winkfield, Crowthorne, Amen Corner and Wokingham. In the 1911 Census Roland was a labourer for the Post Office, but by the following year and at the age of 17, he had enlisted for the Royal Navy. He wouldn’t have expected war to have started within less than two years of his joining and much less that by the age 19 his short life would be brought to an abrupt end. Roland was an Infantry Royal Marine, when on New Years Day 1915, his ship the HMS Formidable, had succumbed to the torpedoes of a German U Boat.
Service Record
WOODS, ROLAND WALTER Private Royal Marine Light Infantry H.M.S. “Formidable.”
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Born 18 March 1895 /Date of Enlistment: 26 August 1912 Killed in action. Date of Death: 01/01/1915 Service No: CH/17519 Memorial Reference: 13. Memorial: CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
Account (dreadnoughtproject.org) of the sinking of HMS Formidable:
On the night of 31 December after exercises, the fleet remained at sea even though submarine activity had been reported in the area. With the wind increasing and rough sea conditions, submarine attacks would have been difficult to carry out effectively and so were not thought to be a significant threat.
The next day, H.M.S. Formidable was steaming at 10 knots at the rear of the squadron just 20 miles from Star Point, when at 02:20 she was struck by a torpedo on the starboard side giving her a list of 20 degrees. 45 minutes later she was struck by a second torpedo. The pinnace (life boats) and launch along with two other boats (one of which capsized soon after) were launched, and the two light cruisers managed to pick up 80 men. H.M.S. Formidable remained afloat until 04:45, and then went down quickly with Captain Arthur Noel Loxley still on the bridge along with his Fox Terrier Bruce. In rough seas near Berry Head, a Brixham trawler, the Provident under the command of Captain W. Piller, picked up the men from the launch before it sank, saving 71 members of the crew. The second pinnace took off another 70 men. This boat was spotted from the shore the following night and a further 48 men were brought ashore alive 22 hours after the sinking.
HMS Formidable 1898 – 1915
The total loss of life on Formidable was 35 Officers and 512 men out of 780.
The wreck site is designated and controlled under the Protection of Military Remains Act. Captain Loxley’s dog, Bruce, was washed ashore and is buried in a marked grave in Abbotsbury Gardens in Dorset.
There is a strange connection with the Formidable and Lassie the famous dog of our childhoods.
Roland is remembered on the Binfield Memorial
The Woods Family Tree
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