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Mervin Lionel Woods was a native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, and was born in Tacoma, Washington, son of John Jex Woods and Anna (Koenig) Woods. In January 1915 Mervin Woods enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He embarked for the United Kingdom (England) in May 1915 and after additional training was soon at the Western Front in Belgium and France. By September 1915, Mervin Woods was serving with the 29th Battalion CEF. In April, 1916, Woods was serving at St. Eloi, located less than five miles south of Ypres. On April 5th at St. Eloi, the 27th Battalion was in the process of being relieved by the 29th Battalion. One part of the Battle of St. Eloi involved attacks and counter-attacks to capture various mine craters (#1, #2, #3, #4, and #5) caused by Allied tunnelling and artillery shells from both armies. Mervin Woods was one of the ones sent as a forward observation scout, to warn his colleagues about potential enemy action. However about the time Woods and other scouts had reached their posts, the Germans opened up the fiercest concentrated and most terrific bombing his unit had faced up to that time. The enemy attack obliterated machine gun posts and any semblance of trenches. Woods had been wounded so severely that he could not get back to the Canadian front line. First he was reported “missing in action”. Later he was officially reported “killed in action”. Later it was learned that he died of wounds in a German “prisoner of war” camp. Mervin Lionel Woods was one of those courageous and brave Canadians who helped the Allies defeat the forces of evil and maintain democracy in North America and Western Europe but who lost his life and made the supreme sacrifice in doing so. |