Sir Evelyn Wood - Victoria Cross Recipient Trampled By A Giraffe

Dysentery, fever, bullet wounds, broken bones, pneumonia, typhoid, starvation, trees, tigers, giraffe hooves, and a nail above his heart, and a horse bite. The man must have been made of teflon

Well, the phrase: "they don't make them like they used to", has never been as true as in his case!

I knew of him as the British commander at Hlobane and Kambula but I didn't know how eventful the rest of his life was. Thanks for the video!

They need to make a movie or TV series about this dude, it would awesome!

This is classical example of a Mans Man. To say that this fellow had brass would be an understatement. Bravo Sir. May I have more please!

Just Lovely! A very grand video about my favorite Victorian Era British General, Chris! Cheers!

Can we appreciate that this man always seemed to have some minor blunders in combat. He lead charges from the front, but he occasionally lost footing his fell face first in a ditch. He stabbed a sepoy one, got his sword stuck. During the Zulu Anglo War, he fired a rifle at a Zulu too soon bcuz it was hot, hit him any way. This guy was just jammy as all get out. But man hope i can be half as brave as him.

Fantastic story! You couldn’t make it up! The man was unbreakable!

Brilliant mate. I know you don't do Australian, but the last general to be knighted in the feild, Sir John Monash might be interested interesting.

Yes, a real hero made of steel. Thank you, Chris, for another great video.

Many thanks for another history gem. As per my previous comments on your Ashanti Ring videos, I married into the Colley family. None of them pronounce their surname "Coley" (as in fish), rather it's "Colley" (as in the dog).

What a remarkable man, and tremendous career. Thank you Chris for sharing. 👍

Thank you, Chris, another brilliant telling, and I was truly gobsmacked by the number of injuries and maladies he sustained. Keep up the good work, and thanks again. Cheers

Very interesting in itself and also helps to put this late Victorian period in context. The presentation these days is really very, very good.

His last words were "my greatest regret in life was not getting a re-match with that giraffe."

Fortunately for the Giraffe, the incident happened a century before she would have been suspected of KGB Connections.

Excellent and enthusiastic presentation of the life of a long forgotten (by most) great British soldier. Such a great pity that the expoiits of many such great men and women are not mentioned in the curriculum of U.K. schools today for without hero's such as Evelyn Wood example, it's hardly surprising that so many of school leavers fail in life....................

I’m a veteran of the British armed forces and live very close to Aldershot, and General Wood VC has at least one road named after him, so seeing your documentary I think 💭 that it makes sense to find out about the man himself and not just a road sign on the side of the road. I will say thanks for sharing your research and knowledge with us now as I am sure it is going to be interesting and informative given the title involving the General and a giraffe 🦒. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦 Sorry but I just had to say that when it comes down to the officer Corp within the British military we used to say that the rank of Sgt-WO was the best rank and best mess because it was the only rank and mess you couldn’t buy your way into, obviously that isn’t true today but the sentiment remained the same as the vast majority of officers went to private schools, university and had a higher standard of education, equivalent in some ways to buying a commission, but obviously that was the way things worked in that era, buying a commission was akin to buying a house or horse, if you were of noble stock, not necessarily with a title, and had the money you could one second be a civilian and the next a commissioned officer. But us lowly Sgt’s had to start at the bottom and WORK to become a Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) and to this day the pride of attaining the rank has not changed, and is still the most important rank in our military. Sorry for the rant, I just hate hearing how our original officer Corp could be as thick as two short planks, not have a military bone in their body, no nothing of tactics or weapons and could still be an officer, whilst the real military minds are or were seen as mere pheasants not worth the air they breathed. I know I go on a bit but I have to say that in my 24 years service there weren’t many ‘Ruperts’ that I disliked serving under and with, but the best of them were always the ones who rose through the ranks and really earned their Commissions. Despite my dislike of officers who bought their way up the promotion ladder I have to say that General Wood was a real military man whose service and dedication to all ranks was incredible, add in the litany of accidents and injuries etc and you have a man that deserves respect and remembrance.

Good to hear from you again Chris. I hope you will take up the New Zealand wars soon. Kind regards, Jan.👍👍👍

Another good video, Chris! Definitely as good as and better than the entry on Wood by The History Guy. Wood indeed had quite the life just like Sir Christopher Lee except didn't accumulate so many injuries from his career in the military. He was quite the soldier from so many ailments and battle wounds he just kept pressing on, one of the best generals in the British Army in the Victorian era. Despite his sycophantism, he managed to reach senior positions in the British Army by his abilities as a general if not the very top. Another injury he had was a cross pressed into his chest from another accident. One of his best known soldierly feats was at the Kambula he killed a Zulu chief at 250 yards, a feat British soldiers rarely achieved at the time. It is amazing that his face recovered from the giraffe smash and he grew a beard reduced later to a mustache. It was too bad relations between him and Wolseley strained in the later years, Wood was one of his best commanders.