When the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is rededicated on Monday, David McCarthy will have a special place of honour as the representative of Charlotte S. Wood who was Canada’s first Silver Cross Mother. Charlotte lost five sons in the First World War and two others would be seriously injured. Here is the remarkable background on David McCarthy and his great-grandmother Charlotte Wood, provided to reporters by Veterans Affairs Canada:
“David McCarthy is the great-grandson of Charlotte Susan Fullman, and the grandson of Charlotte’s only daughter, Ellen McCarthy. David was born in 1942 and resides in Bury St. Edmunds, England, with his wife Carol and his two children. He is honoured to be invited to the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Dedication of the Restored Vimy Monument, representing his great-grandmother Charlotte. His family represents the selfless sacrifice made by so many of those from the noble generation who lived through and fought in the First World War. “It is very special to be able to pay my respects to my great-uncles who gave their lives.”
Charlotte, born in 1861, in Chatham, England, married Frederick Louis Wood when she was 27. Frederick had six young sons from a previous marriage, and together Frederick and Charlotte had an additional seven children: one girl, Ellen, and six boys. Frederick’s oldest son, Richard, died during a typhoid epidemic in May 1900, while serving with the British Army in South Africa. However, the sacrifices made by the Wood siblings in the name of the Commonwealth would not end with Richard’s untimely death.
Part of the Wood family moved to Edmonton in 1905. The four youngst Wood sons, Herbert, Harry, Percy, and Charles emigrated to Canada with Charlotte and Frederick. Sons Louis, Joseph, William, Arthur, Alfred, Frederick and John, along with daughter Ellen chose to stay in Britain.
In 1914, Charlotte’s sons in Britain enlisted in the army and navy, and her sons in Canada followed their footsteps. The two youngest, Percy and Charles, aged 15 and 13 respectively, were too young to serve in 1914 when the war broke out. But they signed up anyway the following Christmas. By the beginning of 1916, all 11 of the Wood sons had enlisted.
The First World War struck the Wood family quickly with 32–year-old Louis lost at sea when HMS Hogue was torpedoed in September 1914. During the next four years, Charlotte and Frederick suffered a series of devastating losses: Fred, killed on the Somme in France; Harry killed at age 18 at Gallipoli, Italy; Joseph, who survived Gallipoli and the Somme, only to perish in Passchendaele, Belgium; and Percy, not quite 18 when he was killed at Vimy. At least two other sons were seriously wounded but survived the war.
Charlotte was awarded the George V Jubilee Medal in 1935 and was the first recipient of the Memorial Cross, awarded to mothers and widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty or whose death was consequently attributed to such duty. On July 16, 1936, she took part in “The Vimy Pilgrammage” and was one of three mothers of war dead who met King Edward VIII. At Westminster Abbey in London, Charlotte placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of all of Canada’s bereaved mothers.
Charlotte died in Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital on October 11, 1939 at the age of 78. Her daughter, Ellen, and just five of her 12 sons outlived her.”