Virtual
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Australia

Excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Courtesy of the Authors

Oswald Ryle Horwood was born on the 23rd August 1883 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.  His father Thomas George Horwood was the Vicar of the Parish and his mother was Agnes, nee Whereat. He was educated at the Dean Close School in Cheltenham, the Philberds School, Maidenhead, Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he gained his BA in 1905. He served in the Cambridge Volunteer Rifles while at University. After graduating, Horwood went to India, where he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Simla Volunteer Rifles in 1907. He returned to England in 1907. He was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1910, and gained his MA in the same year, and served as a priest in 1911. Between 1910 and 1913 he was a curate in parishes in Canning Town, East Finchley, and Stepney England.   At the same time he was studying medicine at The London Hospital Medical College, and passed the conjoint exams in 1913. Horwood completed his residency at St Mary’s Hospital, Plaistow, the Hampstead, North West London Hospital, and Scarborough General Hospital. He was curate from 1913-14 to his father who at this time was Rector of Tunstall in Suffolk. He came to Australia in late 1914, allegedly to earn money, and was registered in SA in January 1915.  He took up practice with Dr Dawes as a “physician and surgeon “in Hawker, South Australia. 

Horwood volunteered for the AIF in August 1915. He was single, 31 years old, 5ft 10ins tall, and weighed 11st, His father, in England, was named as his next of kin. He stated he was familiar with all forms of anaesthesia, and could speak German and Hindustani well, with some French, Latin and Greek. He was posted to 1 AAH at Harefield England and later to the Bostal Heath Con Depot at Abbey Wood. He did not go to France until July 1916. After arriving at 5 ADBD at Étaples, he was sent briefly to 2 AGH at Wimereux, then on to 2 FdAmb, and was finally posted RMO of 10 Bn in August. He returned to England in November and requested his discharge in England on the grounds that his father was close to death. It was stated that the parish living at Tunstall Suffolk where his father was the incumbent belonged to the Horwood family, and that if Horwood did not take it up promptly, it would lapse. Horwood’s request for discharge was supported by General Howse, and he did take up the parish on his father’s death. He was awarded the Medaille du Roi Albert in June 1920; a war medal, this was for Belgian citizens and foreign nationals for humanitarian assistance to Belgians during World War 1. He did not remain at Tunstall Suffolk for long. He had two periods of service with the RAMC in 1917-18 and 1920-21. In Australia he was issued with the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Horwood was appointed Chaplain to the Bishop of Zululand after the war. He returned to Zululand again from 1921-22. In 1924 the British Government, London   enquired about the suitability of Horwood for a post in the Colonial Service. Whether a position was forthcoming remains unclear. The regimental history of 10 Bn contains an unconfirmed report that Horwood was working with a Christian Mission in China. Horwood seems to have been well connected and generally held in high esteem. He married Elizabeth Marguerite Hansford, in Warwickshire in 1929; they have no recorded children. He was acting curate of Sulhamstead near Reading Berkshire in 1929. Oswald Ryle Horwood died on the 16th November 1929 at Tunstall, Suffolk. He was 46 years old. 

Sources:

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=5831660.

Lock Cecil Bert Lovell, ‘The Fighting Tenth,’ Webb and Son, Adelaide, 1936.

Photo: AWM 4058