Private George Preston Wood
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- 4569
- Unit
- 28 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- France
- Date of death
- 6 August 1916
- Age
- 18
- Plaque number
- L33A
- Co-located plaques
- L33 - PTE Richard Wood
- Dedicated by
- Family on 12 February 2022
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
George Preston Wood was born at Preston via Donnybrook, Western Australia in September 1897 to parents Abraham and Georgina Wood (nee Bishop). He had three sisters and two brothers.
George’s grandfather William Wood was one of the early settlers in the Donnybrook area taking up land farming.
George’s schooling was at Minninup Farm, Donnybrook which he attended with his brother Richard.
In June 1910, George’s father was severely injured while hauling timber piles at Seven Mile Siding, Preston Valley. The timber piles where being used in construction of the Busselton Jetty. His father was conveyed to the Bunbury hospital, but later died from his injuries.
In February 1916, George enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force at Bunbury at the age of eighteen years and conducted his training at Blackboy Hill military camp.
In March 1916, he embarked for overseas service aboard HMAT Shropshire from Fremantle. He was a part of 11 reinforcements of 28 Battalion.
Arriving in Egypt, George conducted further training until May 1916 when he embarked from Alexandria bound for the Western Front in France.
On the night of 4 August 1916, George was involved in an attack north of Pozieres against the German trench system known as OG1 and OG2.
George was moving from the support trenches into the front line and was in no man’s land when he received a leg wound from an artillery shell. One of his mates tendered to his wound, leaving him in the shell hole to be collected by medics. This was the last time George was seen alive. On returning, George was missing from the shell hole with his exact fate unknown.
Private George Preston Wood, service number 4569 of 28 Battalion, was killed in action on 4 August 1916 at Pozieres France. He was eighteen years of age.
George has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial France.
His plaque is placed alongside that of his brother Private Richard Wood of 51 Battalion, who was killed in action at Moquet Farm at seventeen years of age, eleven days after George.
Their mother Georgina published this poem in the West Australian newspaper on 8 August 1919, three years after the brothers’ deaths:
"Tis only a mother who knows the sorrow
Tis only a mother who knows the pain
Of losing a son she loved so dearly
But hopes in heaven to meet again."