My wife's ancestors - Maltass - Contents

Wood

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Diary of Hortense Wood. Copy may be in Exeter University Library.

Dr. Charles Wood,
NOT Hood,
sent out to Smyrna by the Duke of Richmond to practice at the hospital [must be the 5th Duke of Richmond, who had the title from 1819 to 1860, and who was prominent in the military, see Historical background],
mar Eugenie Maltass [born est c.1820],
she inherited what is now called The Steinbuchel House in Bornova,
had issue:

1. Lucy Wood,
   mar ----,
   lived in the Maltass house, which is now called The Steinbuchel House, in Bornova, with her sister Hortense,
   it became known as the "Wood-Paterson House" (perhaps her husband was Paterson),
   had issue,
   grandmother of:
   1. Mrs. Renée Steinbüchel.

   
   

2. Hortense Wood,
   born est c.1860,
   did not marry,
   lived in The Steinbuchel House, in Bornova, with her sister Lucy,
   [Kalcas, 1983] says she was a great feminist, a poetess, composer and gifted painter, who had taken piano lessons from Franz Liszt,
   she was an admirer of Kemal Ataturk and wrote to congratulate him on his successes (see Historical background),
   "In Sept 1922, on his arrival in Smyrna as General-in-Chief of the Turkish army, Ataturk enquired where Hortense Wood lived. .. The Wood house, which has changed little since those days, was then taken over as Ataturk's Headquarters. Though all his staff could not be accommodated there, Ataturk occupied the room of a son, Ernest, while Ismet Pasa and others were stationed in neighbouring houses. .. The house was the scene of many staff meetings, and Ataturk often played chess with a nephew, Fernand De Cramer. The General vouched for the safety of this house for all heirs in perpetuity." [Kalcas, 1983].

   Be that as it may, despite the Woods' admiration for him, and despite his own secular and westernising reforms later, the arrival of Ataturk's Turkish army signalled the slaughter of the Greeks and Armenians, the almost total destruction of Smyrna, and effectively the end of its history as a cosmopolitan western city. See Historical background.

   
   

3. (dau) Wood,
   mar Norbert De Cramer ["grand-uncle of Renée Steinbüchel"] and had issue.