Joseph Wood

Joseph Wood MVO (1841 – 19 June 1923) was an English clergyman and schoolmaster, headmaster successively of Leamington College, Tonbridge School, and Harrow School, and while in London a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. He was headmaster of his three schools for forty years and in retirement was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral.

Early life Born in 1841, Wood was educated at Manchester Grammar School and matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 13 April 1861, aged 18. He was an exhibitioner from that year until 1865, when he graduated BA, and was then Fereday Fellow of St John's College until 1868.

Wood's younger brother Llewellyn Wood followed him to Oxford and also became a clergyman.

Career In 1870, Wood secured his first headmastership, at Leamington College, a position he held for twenty years, to 1890. He was then appointed to take charge at Tonbridge, where he stayed until 1898, when he was chosen to succeed James Welldon as Head Master of Harrow. The Spectator reported on the appointment "Dr Wood goes to Harrow with the reputation of an energetic and successful organiser... a brilliant scholar, an ardent patron of cricket." who in the event was appointed to succeed Wood in 1910. When Wood retired, after twelve years at Harrow, he had been a headmaster for forty years. In May 1908, he was quoted in Pearson's Weekly on the subject of boys and beer: "Long experience has convinced me that boys are better, healthier, stronger, more able to do work, either physical or mental, without beer than with it."

Awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1879, In 1905, he was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order.

Private life In 1868 Wood married Caroline S. Hughes, a daughter of W. S. P. Hughes, of Northwich Hall, Worcestershire, Their first son, Charles, was born in 1869, and was later headmaster of Sherborne School. A second son, John Barry Wood, later Political Secretary for India, was born in 1870. A third son, Cecil Strachan, born in 1872, died of wounds in France in December 1914. joined a bank in India.

Wood died on 19 June 1923 at Margate, while he was a residentiary canon of Rochester.