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George Henry Wood

Epithet: JP, secretary, manager and director of the Isle of Man Railway Company (1835-1925)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):

George Henry Wood was a man who had a significant influence on the Isle of Man in the second half of the nineteenth century This influence is still felt today, chiefly as a consequence of his position as an officer of the Isle of Man Railway Company for over 50 years.

His origins lay in West Yorkshire, where he was born in 1835 of a family of farmers and manufacturers of Slaithwaite near Huddersfield. His uncle, Joseph Wood, was a banker with Clement Royds & Co. of Rochdale.

In about 1855 G.H. Wood came to the Isle of Man and studied Manx law, joining the Douglas firm of advocates Harris & Adams. In around 1860 he was appointed Coroner of Middle. However his life was to take a new direction when, in April 1870, a consortium was formed to create a railway in the Island. In January 1871 he was appointed provisional secretary of the new company, and in 1872 general secretary. The first line, to Peel from Douglas, was inaugurated in July 1873. On 17th March 1876 he was appointed secretary and manager, posts which he continued to hold until his retirement in 1903; he was then appointed director, an office which he held until his death. So he was associated as an officer in various capacities from the conception of the railway in 1870 till his death in 1925, a period of some 55 years. In 1905, the year after the Isle of Man Railway Company took over the Northern Railway, he was given the rare honour of having one of the steam locomotives named after him: No.10, G.H. Wood, which is still [2006] in service.

His life was not confined during this time to the railways. He acted as agent for Sir John Goldie-Taubman and his son of The Nunnery, and at his death had been an agent of the Royal Insurance Company for over 60 years. He was also a Justice of the Peace. His obituaries in Manx newspapers state that he was still actively engaged with Pole Moor Baptist Chapel in Huddersfield. He was passionately fond of music, an interest which he shared with his kinsmen, Harry Wood and Haydn Wood.

After the death of his first wife in 1865, he married again on 11th July 1866, and lived with his family of one son, George, and eight daughters at Oakley House, 49 Derby Road, Douglas for around 60 years. He developed, in his later years, a keen interest in the game of bowls at the green whose existence is recalled by the name of the Bowling Green Hotel. According to his photograph in 1916 he was of medium height with a broad build and countenance, clean shaven but with a white beard below his chin.

In World War I he lost two nephews, a son-in-law and two grandsons, four of these young relatives at Loos in 1915. His son and three of his daughters continued to live in the Isle of Man, Janetta Mary married to Henry Brearley, founder of Heron and Brearley Ltd., Emma who married the redoubtable John Archibald Brown, proprietor and editor of the Isle of Man Times, Florence marrying J. Harrison, Chief Registrar. One of his grandchildren, several of his great-grandchildren and further generations still live in the Isle of Man.

He died in his 90th year at home in Oakley House, after a long illness, and is buried in Onchan Churchyard, to the south east of the chancel.

Biography written by Roger Rawcliffe.

(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.465-6.)

Culture Vannin

#NMW

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 10 May 1835

Date of death: 21 April 1925

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