James Richard Wood (SN 3539) was a 26 year old fireman from the corner of Ascot and Latrobe Streets in Ballarat when he enlisted on July 13th 1915. He trained at Ballarat, Seymour and Broadmeadows becoming a reinforcement for the 14th Battalion. He sailed from Melbourne on October 11th aboard the Nestor and disembarked at Suez.
Illness troubled him in the early months of 1916 but in December he moved to France. On April 11th 1917 he was wounded in action. He suffered multiple wounds to his left arm and side and was evacuated to hospital in England. He returned to France in August but Trench Fever forced him to hospital again in November. He was wounded again on August 8th 1918, suffering a gunshot wound to the left thigh, but remained in France for treatment and convalescence.
After the war he returned to Australia on the Port Napier and disembarked at Melbourne on July 2nd 1919. He died at Ballarat in August 1962, aged 72 years.