HORNET HEAVEN

Harry Wood was a regular for Watford.

But, twice, it was his absence from the pitch that was remarkable.

Harry Wood was an ever-present during the 1898/1899 season until, in March, he missed his first game in extraordinary circumstances. That morning, he was busy rescuing survivors of a shipwreck in the English Channel.

A squad of Watford players had gone on a club trip to the Channel Islands to play games over Easter. At 7am on the 31st March, their steam ship (SS Vera) came across two lifeboats from the SS Stella that had hit the rocks off Alderney the day before. Harry and the other Watford players helped the 67 survivors onto the SS Vera. They gave up their cabin berths and revived and comforted the freezing and exhausted victims of the shipwreck.

This was why Harry was unavailable for selection for Watford’s game against Chesham in the afternoon.

One of the survivors sent a letter to the Watford Observer the following week. He wrote: “I rejoice to bear testimony to this illustration of the fact that athletes develop not only muscle but heart and character, and in fact all that constitutes manliness. The Watford footballers — God bless them.”

A year later, in April 1900, Harry successfully started a game but had to miss the end of it. It was a big game too – a play-off for a place in Division One of the Southern League.

In those days, there were no substitutes, so it took something serious for a player to leave the field. This was serious. Harry was called to his mother’s death-bed. 

Some things are more important than football. Harry rushed away from Cassio Road with around 15 minutes of the match to play. In the end, Watford’s ten men won 2-1 and Harry missed the promotion celebrations. 

Overall, Harry made 124 competitive appearances for Watford, scoring 14 goals. When he made his final appearance in 1901, he’d played more Southern League games for the club than anyone else. He was a hero on and off the pitch – as his exploits in the Channel Islands proved. And he would go on to be a hero again when he fought on the Western Front in the First World War. His death in 1921, at the age of 42, would be attributed to his having been gassed in the trenches.

In Hornet Heaven, Harry is yet to be the hero of one of our imaginative stories set in the Watford afterlife. In truth, his heroism down on earth told the real story about him.

Find out more about the Hornet Heaven stories and podcast here.

Read about other ‘Deceased Players of The Month’ here.