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 modernizing the training of the army by abolishing useless drill and ceremonies and giving much greater attention to exercises in the field. At the same time he did much to improve the conditions of the soldier's life. In 1891 he became lieutenant-general and was created G.C.B. In 1893 he went to the War Office as quartermaster-general, and was responsible for a complete reorganization of the system of transporting troops. He abolished the old transports and instead entered into contracts with the great shipping companies, not only effecting a considerable economy, but adding greatly to the comfort of the troops conveyed overseas. He also made new and more economical arrangements with the railway companies, and incidentally obtained many valued concessions for officers and men proceeding on leave. In October 1897 he became adjutant-general to the forces, and in that position was responsible for the mobilization on the outbreak of the South African War (1899–1901) and for the raising of the large number of new formations which that war required. In October 1901 he was appointed to the command of the Second Army Corps, with head-quarters at Salisbury, and was responsible for organizing that command, which had developed out of the purchase of a great part of Salisbury Plain for military training. This was Wood's last active command. He had been promoted full general in 1895, and in 1903 was created field-marshal.

Throughout his life Wood was a keen and bold rider to hounds and he hunted almost down to his death. On becoming prime warden of the Fishmongers' Company in 1893 he invited thirty-five masters of hounds to dine with the company. He was a regular contributor to the military magazines, and published, among other books, The Crimea in 1854 and in 1894 (1895), Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign (1896), Achievements of Cavalry (1897), and From Midshipman to Field-Marshal (1906). He died 2 December 1919 at Harlow, Essex.

There is a portrait by W. W. Ouless in the hall of the Fishmongers' Company (Royal Academy Pictures, 1906).

 WOODGATE, WALTER BRADFORD (1840–1920), oarsman, was born at Belbroughton rectory, Worcestershire, 20 September 1840, the eldest son of the Rev. Henry Arthur Woodgate, rector of Belbroughton and canon of Worcester, by his wife, Maria Bradford. His younger brother was Major-General Sir Edward Woodgate [q.v.]. He entered Radley College in 1850, matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, as a scholar in 1859, graduated in 1863, and was called to the bar (Inner Temple) in 1872. For more than half a century Woodgate was the outstanding figure on the upper Thames. He rowed his first race in 1858 for Radley against Eton over the Henley course; he rowed his last race at Henley in 1868. His racing record is amazing: he was in the Oxford winning crews of 1862 and 1863, and won the university pairs three times and the sculls twice; at Henley he won the Grand Challenge cup in 1865, the Stewards' cup in 1862, the Diamond sculls in 1864, the Goblets in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1866, and 1868. He also held the Wingfield sculls in 1862, 1864, and 1867. Woodgate was not only a great oar, but his knowledge of oarsmanship was unsurpassed and it covered almost a century of rowing. He entered the rowing world soon enough to meet the giants of its early days; he had known Thomas Staniforth, Oxford stroke in the first university boat race in 1829, and he was present at Henley regatta in 1920. As a judge of pace he was unequalled, and his text-book, Oars and Sculls, and how to use them (1875), is a classic.

Woodgate's life, however, was full of other interests, and his full-blooded activities and mental versatility were as remarkable as his rowing. His varied interests jostle one another in the pages of his Reminiscences of an Old Sportsman (1909), where he writes of country life, steeplechasing, school and college life (he was the founder of Vincent's Club at Oxford), of the parentage of James I, the inner history of the search for Dr. Livingstone by the Royal Geographical Society, his own indirect share in Pasteur's researches, of politics, and police morality. The law he never took too seriously. As a journalist he assisted at the birth of Vanity Fair and Land and Water; he was associated with the Pall Mall Gazette in its early days, and contributed to the Field for half a century. He wrote a few novels under the pseudonym of ‘Wat Bradwood’, and in 1893 he published A Modern Layman's Faith.

The question why, with his undoubted ability, Woodgate did not go further, may perhaps be answered in his own words: ‘I am who and what I am, and my best and truest friends (of both 593