Philip James Woods

Col. Philip James Woods, D.S.O. (23 September, 1880-12 September, 1961) was a Independent Unionist politician in Northern Ireland, member of the Northern Ireland House of Commons. He was a colonel in the Royal Ulster Rifles and also worked as a textile designer.

Military career

A staunch Imperialist, P.J. Woods had an eventful career before entering politics. Originally serving in South Africa under Baden-Powell, he became involved in the Ulster Volunteers and joined the British Army on the outbreak of war. He served with the Royal Irish Rifles as part of the 36th (Ulster) Division and during the 1916 Battle of the Somme was active in the Thiepval Wood Section when they suffered heavy losses achieving their objectives. In 1917 Woods led the 9th Battalion of the R.I.R in the Battle of Messines.

In June 1918 he went as part of the Murmansk force involved in the Allied Intervention to Russia. It's task was to obstruct the Viena expedition by German-officered White Finn forces threatening East Karelia and the Murmansk-Petrograd railway. Operating out of Kem on the White Sea he established a "Karelian Regiment", supplied and officered by the British. The Irish Karelians, as they were known, adopted a regimental badge he designed consisting of a green shamrock on an orange field. With this force he was able to push the Germans and Finns established in Uhtua out of White Karelia (Vienan Karjala) in 1918. His success with the Karelians fostered unrealistic hopes of national self-determination which were ultimately unfulfilled, caught as they were between the Finns and Russians. The formation melted away as a transfer to White Russian command was attempted and Woods was evacuated in October 1919 with the rest of the British forces.

In 1919-1920 he served with a group of British officers organising the nascent Lithuanian Wars of Independence
Lithuanian Army, defending it against various German Freikorps and Polish threats. Arguments over their agreed British Army rates of pay led to the group eventually leaving Lithuania.

Political career

He was first elected in a by-election held on the 2nd May 1923 for Belfast West following the death of William Twaddell the sitting MP. He stood in the Northern Ireland general election, 1925 in both the Belfast West and Belfast South winning both seats, he declined the Belfast South seat on election. Woods campaigned in the parliament for ex-servicemen and on economic and social issues. As the only M.P. without party affiliations before the Nationalists took their seats, he operated as a lone opposition voice to the dominant Ulster Unionist Party government.

He unsuccessfully contested the Northern Ireland general election, 1929 for Belfast St Anne's. His loss can in large part be attributed to the abolition of proportional representation in February 1929, its replacement with a first past the post system and the establishment of new electoral constituencies which divided his support base. Lacking a Party-machine he also lost the Westminster election in the Belfast South constituency held eight days later.

Later life

After his political career in Northern Ireland Woods moved to England in the 1930s and re-married, living in Long Crendon, Bucks. He was incidentally an employer of William Joyce at this time, but had no direct links with the British Union of Fascists. During the war he fund-raised in Yorkshire for the war effort.

ources

* Baron, Nick. "The King of Karelia: Col P.J. Woods and the British Intervention in North Russia 1918-1919. A History & Memoir" (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2007). [http://www.francisboutle.co.uk/booklist/karelia/index.htm Short publishers description]