| Administrative History | William Wood was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in 1882, one of seven children and the son of a prominent man in the herring trade. He studied medicine at Aberdeen with a course in midwifery in Dublin. He became resident medical officer at the Lewisham Infirmary in London then worked at the Sick Children's Hospital in Aberdeen.
In 1905, he travelled to India as a ship's surgeon and, following this, he spent the years up to 1911 at the Addington Hospital in Durban. During this period, he also worked as ship's surgeon on a transport repatriating to Hong Kong numbers of Chinese coolies who had been employed in the Johannesburg mines.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1911 where he gained his MD from Aberdeen University and spent a year in the Soho Hospital for Women before once again leaving Europe for Australia where he settled in Sydney. He practised on Sydney's North Coast until the First World War broke out. He served in Egypt and Palestine with the 1st Light Horse Regiment and, following the armistice, he spent a few months in the UK and Europe which included a few months working on Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Edinburgh (1919).
From 1920 to 1926, he practised at Bondi Beach in Sydney. For the following four years, he travelled extensively in Canada, the US and Europe, obtaining membership of the Royal College of Physicians in London in 1930, before returning to Sydney. His practice moved to MacQuarie Street in Sydney and he became the medical officer for the Australia Hotel. He was active in a number of causes including Legacy, a charity for the care of widows and dependants of servicemen, and in organising the War Veterans' home at Narrabeen.
During the Second World War, he founded and organised the 113 (Concord) Military Hospital and acted as its Commanding Officer.
He received an OBE for services to ex-servicemen in 1965 and died in 1974. |