Henry Wood

Henry Elwes Wood (1865 – 1907 ) was an English football pioneer who played as a defender for some of the earliest Catalan clubs in existence such as Barcelona Cricket Club and Barcelona Football Club.

Playing career Wood was born in 1865 as the son of Henry Wood and Isabella Matilda Elwes, who had eight children, six girls and two boys. He moved to Barcelona in the late 1880s due to work reasons, and like so many other Britons who moved to the Catalan capital, Wood soon joined the British Club of Barcelona on La Rambla dels Capuchins, where he was one of the founders of the Barcelona Cricket Club, a sport he also practiced. In 1892, he met James Reeves, who was recruiting football enthusiasts to create a well-organized football club, and despite being the captain of the cricket club, Wood joined him since he had been impressed by his passionate and entrepreneurial spirit.

Later life He married Katherine Margaret Beaty-Pownall (1869–1942), the sister of John Beaty-Pownall, who also played for the Barcelona Cricket Club and the Barcelona Football Club. The couple had two children, Elizabeth "Betty" in 1896 and Henry in 1902. Henry Wood died in 1907 at the age of 41 or 42, thus leaving his wife a widow. She married shortly after, however, with James Revees and they had an only child in 1910, John Pownall Reeves.