Figure 1. Dry mount of two small “British Coleoptera”, prepared ca. 1920s by J. Walker Wood. The identifying labels were probably cut out from a scientific journal.
John Walker Wood, 1880 - 1938
by Brian Stevenson
last updated December, 2023
J. Walker Wood was a London-based surgeon, specializing in otolaryngology (ears, nose, and throat). In 1928, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. Surviving slides such as the dry-mounts of small beetles shown in Figures 1 and 2, indicate that he had a diversity of scientific interests.
Figure 1.
Dry mount of two small “British Coleoptera”, prepared ca. 1920s by J. Walker Wood. The identifying labels were probably cut out from a scientific journal.
Figure 2.
Close-up of Hylastes palliatus (now Hylurgops palliates, the lesser spruce shoot beetle) and Rhynchites aequatus (the apple fruit rhynchites weevil), mounted by John Walker Wood.
John Walker Wood was born on November 5, 1880, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He appears to have been the only child of Amurath Wood, a dental surgeon, and Alice Wood. “Walker” was his mother’s maiden name. Records show that he used “Walker Wood” as his surname. It was also adopted by his wife, who was named in the probate of John’s will as “Florence Elizabeth Walker Wood”.
John initially planned to become a dental surgeon, like his father, according to his obituary in The British Medical Journal. This explains why the 1901 census of the United Kingdom found John, a “medical student”, boarding with a dental surgeon in Kilburn, Derbyshire.
Walker Wood qualified as a physician and surgeon in 1902, receiving both his Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons from Edinburgh, and his Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons from Glasgow. He undertook postgraduate training in otolaryngology, then took as position as House Surgeon in the Central London Throat and Ear Hospital. Walker Wood published extensively on cases that he encountered during his career. He was a long-standing member in several medical associations, serving as Secretary of the British Oto-Laryngological Society in 1914.
On November 17, 1911, Walker Wood married Frances Elizabeth Wells. Both of his parents traveled to London to witness the ceremony.
During the First World War, John served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, at the rank of Captain. The British Medical Journal wrote that he was “invalided home with malaria”, then “appointed an assessor under the Ministry of Pensions”.
After the war, Walker Wood opened a practice in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He also served in local hospitals and schools.
Walker Wood joined the Royal Microscopical Society in 1928. His known microscope slides presumably date from around that time.
John Walker Wood died on December 30, 1938.
Resources
British Medical Journal (1929) DR. John Walker Wood (obituary), pages 363-364
England census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com
Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society (1928) New Fellows, page 248
The Lancet (1914) British Oto-Laryngological Society (report), page 984
Probate of the will of John Walker Wood (1929) “Wood John Walker of The Chestnuts Grove Hill-road Tunbridge Wells died 30 December 1938 Probate London 22 February to Florence Elizabeth Walker Wood widow and reverend Albert Hanbury Head clerk. Effects £437 5s 11d”, accessed through ancestry.com
Scotland census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com
UK and Ireland, Medical Registers, 1859-1943 (1943)
Walker Wood, J. (1910) Three cases of thrombosis of the lateral sinus, The Lancet, Vol. 176, pages 1210-1212
Walker Wood, J. (1912) The after treatment of mastoid operations including an analysis of results in 260 radical and 100 conservative (health) operations, Transactions of the Ninth International Otological Congress, pages 373-412
Walker Wood, J. (1913) Direct examination of the eustachian tube and naso-pharynx, Journal of Laryngology, Rhinology, and Otology, Vol. 28, pages 568-582
Walker Wood, J. (1920) A case of gunshot wound of the larynx: with impacted foreign body, operation; recovery, The Lancet, Vol. 195, page 27