Alfred Wood

Alfred Herbert Wood (23 April 1866 — 19 April 1941) was an English first-class cricketer who was private secretary to Arthur Conan Doyle for 29 years.

The son of Robert Wood, he was born at Portsmouth in April 1866. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, before matriculating on an open mathematics scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. After graduating from Oxford, he returned to Portsmouth to become an assistant master at Portsmouth Grammar School. Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed for 11 runs by Len Braund in Hampshire's first innings, before being dismissed for the same score in their second innings by Beaumont Cranfield. Wood was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club. He served in the First World War, gaining the temporary rank of major in September 1915. During the war, he saw action on the Western Front, and later on the Italian front in 1918.