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George Ormiston Wood


Graeme

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One more from my collection. Very much still a work in progress. I feel I have only scratched the surface on this one.

 

George Ormiston Wood - 1st, 2nd and 4th Battlion, The Kings Own Scottish Borderers

 

Born: 1918

Birthplace: St Boswells

Father's Occupation: Policeman

Died: December 15 2003

Married: Masie Scott of Overhall 1957 (died suddenly 1982)

 

Residence

St Boswells - 1918-1922

Roberton - 1922-1931

Thornybank, Denholm - 1931-1988

11 Teviot Crescent, Hawick - 1988-1995

Crumhaugh House, Hawick - 1995-2003

 

Schooling

Roberton School

Hawick High School (after passing 11+) - Left 1935

Revereand Mortimer's Boy Scout Troop

 

Jobs

Telegram Boy, Borthwickbrae Post Office

Joiner, Hawick - 1935

KOSB - 1935-1947

Insurance Salesman, Britannic Insurance Company 1947-1957

Lyle & Scott, Hawick - 1957-1982

 

Army Career

Enlisted - 14 June 1935

3rd Class Certificate of Education - Depot, 24 September 1935

Posted - 1st Battalion, KOSB, Malta - 20 November 1935

2nd Class Certificate of Education - Malta, 1 April 1936

Posted - 2nd Battalion, Jubbelpore, India

Posted - 4th Battalion, UK - 1944

Posted - 1st Battalion, Palestine - 1945

Left - 1947

 

Hawick Archaeology Society

Joined - 1955

Life Member - 1977

Honorary Vice president - 1989

Copuncil Member - 1959-1972 & 1982-1988

Field Secretary - 1962-1972

 

Field Excavations - HAS

Crumhaugh Tower

Dod Burn Pele Tower

Heronhall

Norman Burial Ground at Minto

Regeneration of Pine TRees near the summit of Ruberslaw

 

Competitions

Denholm's Best Kept garden - Winner numerous times

1988 - Council for Scottish Archaeology Robertson Award - 2nd Prize

 

Published Articles

Roberton, The Making of a Parish, 1991

Report to the HAS of the Excavation at Crumhaugh Tower 1962-1965

 

Obituary - Borderers Chronicle

3187807 - George Ormiston Wood -

 

Sadly George died 15 December 2003. George joined the Regiment in 1935 as a regular and joined the 2nd Battalion at Jubbelpore in NW India. He served in India until being sent as escort to Italian prisoners taking them to Australia. After delivering his charges he returned to Britian via the USA in time to join the 4th Battalion in liberating Walcheren in the Netherlands.

 

Geroge saw out the war with the 4th before serving in the 1st Battalion in Palestine. After de-mob he lived in Denholm where he became a well known authority on local culture and history with many booklets and pamphlets about the Borders to his credit.

 

His last 10 years were marred by a very severe debilitating illness which he bore with customary cheerfulness.

 

An hour or two in George's company was a delight often experienced by this writer. George was a true Borderer in every sense and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

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Hawick Transactions - Obituary

HAS has lost a stalwart member with the death of George Ormiston Wood. "Ormie" was born in 1918 and spent the first years of his lif in St Boswells coming to his beloved Borthwick Valley when he was 4 years odl, his father having transferred to take charge of the Roberton Police Station, now a private house, appropriately named 'The Coppers'. Here it was that he cultivated his lifelong love of nature, exploring the hills, woods and ponds around his home, in search of whaups and peewit's nests, newts and baggies. He went to Roberton School under Miss Cameron who gave him a sharp crack on the knuckles with a ruler if she saw him writing with his natural left hand and was in Reverend Mortimore's Boy Scout Troop. Passing his 11+ he cycled to continue his education at Hawick High School and got a summer job as a telegram boy at Borthwickbrae Post Office, only ever delivering one telegram, all the way to Howpasley for which he received the princely sum of 1s 6d. On closing o the Roberton Police Station in 1931 the family moved to denhom to Thornbank where Ormie stayed for almost 60 years. He continued to cycle to school, having trouble with tempremental carbide lamps returning home on the dark winter evenings.

 

After starting work as a joiner in Hawick in 1935 he joined the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and after training at Berwick he went to Jubbelpore on the North West Frontier with the 2nd Battalion. When war was declared he went with Willie Lunam who had joined up with him to Australia as part of an escort for Italian Prisoners returning via America to join the 4th Battalion in Belgium and crossed the scheldt to play his part in the liberation of Flushing and the final push through Holland and Germany where he was present at the famous Letzlingen Common Riding. He to the end kept in touch with the Vesters, the Dutch family with whom he was billeted. He was brought home ill from Holland with osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone and bone marrow which led to him spending a year in Peel Hospital, his weight at his lowest being down to 6 stone. As a Regular at the end of the war he was transferred to the 1st Battalion and served in Palestine eventually coming out after 12 years in 1947.

 

On returning to civilian life and to Denholm he took great interest in the village youth club particularly enjoying a game of badminton and resumed with zest his walking of the Border hills and further afield, Common Riding expeditions to the Lairig Ghru and the Corrieyairack with Ally Murray and Sandy Milligan being particularly memorable. Ormie was grand company in the hills and even when increasingly stiff in later life moved with deceptive pace. Every January 1st for many years he climbed to the top of Ruberslaw to see in the New Year. He was also responsible for the regeneration of pine trees near the summit ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy the peace of his favourite glade.

 

He worked for 10 years as an inusrance man with Brittanic Insurance Company then spent the remaining 25 years of his working life in Lyle & scott's stockroom, retiring in 1982.

 

He married Masie Scott of Overhall comparatively late in life in 1957 and they had almost 25 happy years together before her sudden death in 1982.

 

One of Ormie's great passions was his Thornbank garden which contained many rare plants and was a veritable showpiece winning Denholm's best kept garden competition year after year.

Another of his great interests was archaeology and he joined the HAS in 1955 becoming a Life Member in 1977 and being made Honorary Vice President in 1989. He served on the Society's Council from 1959-1972 and again from 1982-1988 and was Field Secretary from 1962-1972 when he carried out Excavations at Crumhaugh Tower with Frank Scott, at the Dod Burn pele-tower and at Heronhall, birthplace of Sir Andrew Smith and again from 1982-1988 when with Jimmy Millar and Peter Elliot he took on the mammoth project of restoring the Norman burial grounds at Minto for which sterling efforts they were awarded 2nd place in the Council for Scottish Archaeology's prestigeous Robertson Awards in 1988. He also led many field walks for members to places like Dere Street and Chew Green and a spin-off from this came in 1983 when the Society was approached by the Community Education Department with a view to providing leaders for walks for their '50 plus' group and Ormie was pleased to oblige establishing a very happy relaitionship with the group. In 1991 he contributed a most comprehensive article to the Transactions entitled 'Roberton, the making of a parish' which was alos published in book form.

 

In later life he was a great supporter of the KOSB 4th Battalion Old Comrades Association going on many pilgrimages Gid Lumsden organised wearing with great pride his 1939/1945 Star, his French & Germany Star, his Victory Medal and his General Service Medal with Bar for Palestine.

 

During his last 20 years Ormie had to contend with the degenerative ankylosing spondylitis which involved the fusing togethre of the vertebrae in his spine which led to his becoming increasingly immobile and evenutually crippled. This necessitated his move from Thornbank to 11 Teviot Crescent in Hawick in 1988 and then to Crumhaugh House in 1995 where he spent hi last years physically paralysed but mentally extremely alert which he was to the very end. An inverterate reader he had a special device to enable him to turn pages and another ingenious aid which allowed him to type on his computer. Despite his helplessness he was totally uncomplaining and never heard to grumble and all who visited him came away the better for having enjoyed his crack for the old soldier faced his final enemy with the same courage and fortitude he had demonstrated defending the Empire and it was extremely fitting that just weeks before he died the Consul General for the Netherlands from Edinburgh and the Dutch Military Atache from London came to Crumhaugh House to present him with the Dutch Liberation Medal.

 

Ormie's years of suffering are now over but he has left for all privileged to have known him imperishable memories of one who represented the now sadly rare yet priceless values of comradeship, discipline, integrity and respect.

 

Fareweel, auld freend and peace be wi'ee

 

IWL

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The Poetry of George Ormiston Wood

 

"Written at Kitchener Lines, The Ridge, Jubbelpore, India, 1939. In the tough days that come just before the monsoon breaks, wnd with Borthwick Water, where I spent my boyhood in mind and knowing that a greater storm than the monsoon was not far ahead."

 

My heart it is sore for a sight of my homeland

Out here on the plains, so sun scorched and still

When the wind only raises the hot choking dust-storm

I can still feel the kiss of the mists on the hill

 

As I wander the tracks over wearisome ridges

By some waterless nullah or sun dried ravine

I can see thy cool rivers 'neath moss covered bridges

I can see thy broad valleys so pleasant and green

 

I can still see the bracken, rain soaked and green smelling

As I trod in the dawning thy wind-swept wild land

And hear in the evening, the soft peals come swelling

Where heart of the country, thy grey churches stand

 

It's deep in my heart still lies a great longing

to old friends and old scenes, when days were carefree

At eve and at dawning the meories come thronging

While far I am wandering, my Homeland, from thee

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Picture 1 - Training Squad, Depot, Beriwck Barracks, 1935

Picture 2 - George Wood being presented with the Dutch Liberation Medal by the Dutch Military Attache, Hawick, 2003

Picture 3 - Charcoal sketch of George Wood by Sandy Milligan, Approximately 2000

Picture 4 - The medals of George Ormiston Wood

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post-11-1197666956_thumb.jpg

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That's quite a comprehensive history you have there G sounds a nice fella too.

 

Its good to know that with your medals his memory will still live on.

 

Are you collecting purely the KOSB now?

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Mainly KOSB but I do still dabble in other things.

 

It's a good start to my research on him but as I say with this chap I have just scratched the surface so far.

 

It's interesting to note that both Obit's have his army career wrong. In the regimental magazine, The Borderers Chronicle, I have found mention of his early career and it ties in with his GSM. The Clasp he has is 'Palestine' which means that he was there with the 1st Battalion in early 1936. The Chronicle puts him as transferring to the 2nd Battalion in late 1936.

 

He qualified for a 'Palestine 1945-1948' Clasp on his return to Palestine in 1947, again with the 1st Battalion.

 

I have never seen a GSM with both a 'Palestine' and a 'Palestine 1945-1948' Clasp.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fantastic Graeme.

I love it when someone can put a face to the medals and they go from being lumps of metal to someones life story.

Any more?

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Thanks, Dave.

 

Nothing more on George Wood yet. However, I do have others in my collection that are various stages of research. Perhaps I will post some more in the near future.

 

Cheers

 

Graeme

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