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Bures-online.co.uk |
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Dr Thomas-Wood lived in the village
until the 1950`s.
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"THOMAS WOOD" - A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS by Jack Edmondson
My wife's mother carried out dressmaking work for Mrs. Wood on occasion and both she and my wife have visited in Parsonage Hall. My wife's diary carries an entry for 19 November 1950: 'Dr. Thomas Wood died suddenly this morning'. Evidently the news spread rapidly through the village in whose life he played a significant role - the highlight being the Christmas carol concert which he conducted each year in the village hall, the proceeds being donated to some charitable or national object. He was the president of the Bures British Legion and a member of the Parish Council for many years, always taking a great interest in the appearance of the village: a generous subscriber to any useful local scheme, he presented a new flag of St. George to the local church. During the war he was instrumental in forming the local Home Guard and was, at first, the leader while he and Mrs.Wood presented the village with an up-to-date fire engine and appliances. As mentioned in Peter Woods article of May 1999, he and Colonel Probert of Bevills Hall presented the village with a sports ground of about five acres bordering the river Stour. Just before his death he promised a subscription of £100 towards the proposed addition of two bells to complete the octave in the church tower and had undertaken to guarantee the full cost of the work - about £400 - in order that the project might begin immediately as it was hoped to have the eight bells ringing in time for the Festival of Britain celebrations in 1951. As might be expected Thomas Wood's death received a considerable amount of attention in the local Press: in the Essex Magazine R. S. Pickersgill wrote an article entitled 'True Thomas - The associations of Thomas Wood with Essex - The story of the man who arranged "Waltzing Matilda"'. The Essex County Telegraph ran a headline 'HE WROTE AUSSIES 'NATIONAL ANTHEM''. In similar vein the Essex County Standard declared 'DR. T. WOOD DIES SUDDENLY. He popularised "Waltzing Matilda"' - which, I guess, was the more accurate statement of the two even if less emphatically presented - and they followed this up in their 'Colchester & County Notes' with an article headed 'The Festival will miss 'True Thomas'' which went on to say : Indeed the secret of his success lay in the fact that he was a good mixer, not only a good mixer with his fellow men but a good mixer of all sides of life. He was as happy and as much at home with Bures British Legion or Parish Council as he was flying all over the Far East or hobnobbing with Royalty, and he enjoyed equally the exacting labours of creative composition and the social pleasures of musical recognition. As "The Times" puts it in the grandiloquent phrases of the obituary, "He devoted his great gifts of friendship to the service alike of his country and of the art of music". Further acknowledgements are to be found in 'Who Was Who, 1940-1950' and in the 'Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950' which speaks of his '..rare talent for understanding the ways of men in countries far from his home, and interpreting them at home' and, referring to the problems with his eyesight: 'Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Wood's achievement was the way in which he overcame a lifelong handicap of eyesight so defective as to be near blindness. To read a music score was at all times a terrible burden, and it was impossible to understand how he could write one. He overcame this disability with courage, energy, and gaiety, and no doubt the discipline was a factor which added distinction to his character.' And, so, he and his wife Osyth sat in the brewhouse and planned - 'a long low room, lined with books, bright with prints, gay with rugs on a polished floor, warm with age and wood fires' - a room where beer was once brewed: '..honest stuff; and when the Roundhead gunners were tired of lobbing cannon-balls at Colchester they dropped in for a quart'. Or so they fancifully imagined - but, true or not, 'The Brewhouse at Bures' is commemorated in a woodwind quintet which he wrote in 1928 and the book - 'Cobbers' - which resulted from this trip is dedicated 'To Osyth, who waited'. And the 'good simple things' did continue at the time of his return from his travels, but under the increasing shadow of the gathering clouds of war. Still, as he recognised, change is inevitable and now things are not quite what they were - of the eight pubs which existed when he wrote these words, only three remain. The Swan, which was the closest to his home - and the Angel Inn, where he sat down with fifty-four village members of the British Legion to eat good beef and drink good beer and sing good songs, is now a private house; the smithy across the road from the Eight Bells Inn has gone and the mill, though still standing, is now silent though it was still working when I first came to the village in 1954 entirely unknowing of the fact that he had lived here. Since all good things are supposed to come in threes, one more little mystery. It is reported in 'Wormingford - an English Village' that in 1949 'The village hall was opened by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Wood. Thomas like his famous namesake was a musician and composer and he was the man who advised the Australians that in Waltzing Matilda they had a jolly tune and lusty song suitable for a young and virile Nation as a National Anthem.' Right on! But who was the famous namesake? My guess is that someone was confusing Thomas with himself! I wish I had known him. I would have liked to have been present at his Christmas carol concerts and to have attended the choral evenings which he held in his garden at Bures but I came too late to this part of the country and so he has had to speak for himself through his writing. I feel that 'A Man for all Seasons' is not an inappropriate description. I hope that you will agree. Jack Edmondson |