On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Wood rejoined the British Army and became a company commander in 6th Battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. He became a temporary lieutenant colonel in 1917, and won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and a Bar while commanding the 6th Battalion, the first announced in the January 1917 New Year Honours,[4] and the second announced on 26 September 1917 (with the citation published on 9 January 1918).[5]
Wood was promoted to brigadier general to command the 55th Infantry Brigade (in the 18th (Eastern) Division) on 9 November 1917, and commanded the brigade until he went sick on 24 October 1918. A second Bar to his DSO was announced on 16 September 1918, and third Bar on 12 December 1919.[6][7]
Wood was demobilised in early 1919, and he joined the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary in October 1919. He was deputy commander under Frank Percy Crozier, and took command in February 1921 after Crozier resigned. He was bankrupted in 1921.
He had married Myra Cotterell in 1898 and they had a son. He remarried in 1916, to Marguerite Dawson, widow of Joseph Gillott. He died 20 May 1930, from cirrhosis of the liver, and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery. He was survived by his second wife and son from his first marriage.[10][11]
References
^‘WOOD, Brig.-Gen. Edward Allan’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 31 Dec 2013
^Brigadier-General E. A. Wood (Obituaries), The Times Wednesday, May 21, 1930; pg. 21; Issue 45518; col C