Stanley Speight Wood was born at Bradford Moor on 18th December 1889, one of four children born to Arthur and Annie Wood. Educated at Trinity College, Harrogate, he worked at his uncle's mills (worsted spinners) in Bradford before suffering a nervous breakdown. At the time of the 1911 Census, he was living with his widowed mother at 91 Moorhead Lane, Shipley. On 10th June 1914, Stanley, then employed as an estate agent and living at Manningham, married 22-year-old Violet Louise Sampson at St. Paul's Church, Shipley; the couple were to live at Westminster Drive, Pannal, and were joined in May 1917 by a son, Geoffrey.
Stanley enlisted into the Army Service Corps in August 1917 and was posted to its 1017th (Motor Transport) Company before it left to serve with the Indian Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
1017th Company was a Ford Van Supply Column formed at Bulford in October 1917. It left for embarkation at Devonport on 27th November with six officers and eighty other ranks, disembarking at Basra on 22nd January 1918. The main body of the company moved up through Baghdad to reach Abu Saida on the left bank of the Diala River on 8th April. The company was mainly employed in transporting and concentrating supplies and stores for the impending campaign against the Turks. Eight days later, the company moved across the river to Qalat al Mufti; further movements brought it to Tuz Kurmatli on 4th May. Its operations were hampered by bad weather; flooded streams and impassable roads put a great strain on men and vehicles.
At some point during the operations, Stanley was taken ill with dysentry and died at No. 23 Stationary Hospital Baghdad on 25th May 1918. His commanding officer wrote to his widow "Although your husband had only been serving with me such a short time, I was able to form a very high opinion of him and of his willingness to be of every assistance, and his quiet disposition endeared him to us all. I assure you by his death I have lost the services of a most promising soldier, and one who, had he pulled through, would undoubtedly have made much progress in this unit."
Stanley Speight Wood lies buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery where the inscription on his headstone, chosen by his family, reads HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR.