b Keswick, Cumberland, 15 Oct 1871;
d London, 19 Feb 1926.
English sculptor. He first trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Karlsruhe, under Heinrich Weltring (b 1846) and Hermann Götz (1848–1901). Returning to England in 1887, he worked as a modeller in Shropshire, first for the pottery firm Maw & Co., and then for the ironfounders Coalbrookdale Iron Co. In 1889 Wood studied sculpture under Edouard Lantéri at the National Art Training Schools in South Kensington (later Royal College of Art); he then became assistant (1890–92) to Alphonse Legros at the Slade School of Art. In 1894–5 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools, while working as Thomas Brock’s assistant, and in the following year he first exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1896 he visited Paris and exhibited at the Salon of 1897. He was Drawing Master at the Glasgow School of Art from 1897 to 1901, when he returned to London. He was elected ARA in 1910 and full Academician in 1920. Wood produced a large number of portrait busts, such as that of Henry James (1913), and sculptures of mythological subjects, such as Psyche (c. 1908–19; both London, Tate). During World War I he was in charge of making masks for plastic surgery at Wandsworth Hospital; in 1916–17 he was runner-up to Alfred Drury in the competition to design a statue of Joshua Reynolds for the Royal Academy (bronze competition models, London, Tate). After the war Wood succeeded Lantéri as Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1918–23) and was commissioned to design various public monuments, including war memorials, such as the Machine Gun Corps memorial at Hyde Park Corner (1925; in situ).


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