Early life Wood was born at
Keswick in Cumbria and studied in Germany and returned to London in 1887 to work under
Édouard Lantéri and Sir
Thomas Brock; he taught at the
Glasgow School of Art from 1897 through to 1905. He produced a good deal of architectural sculpture typical of the time, including four large roof figures for the
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, the British Linen Bank also in Glasgow, and the Britannic House in London for architect Sir
Edwin Lutyens. Freestanding sculptures by him may also be seen in various locations, such as his 1909
Atalanta (
Manchester Art Gallery), with a bronze cast of it now in
Chelsea Embankment Gardens),
World War One As the onset of the
First World War, Wood was too old (at 41), for active duty and enlisted as a private in the
Royal Army Medical Corps, in which he served as an orderly with his photographer friend
Ward Muir. He worked as an orderly in hospital wards, and his exposure to the gruesome injuries inflicted by the new war's weapons eventually led him to open a special clinic: the Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department, located in the Third London General Hospital,
Wandsworth. Instead of the rubber masks used conventionally, Wood constructed masks of thin metal, sculpted to match the portraits of the men in their pre-war normality. Just as had been happening with soldiers operated upon with the recent advances in
plastic surgery, Wood's masks provided each with a renewed self-confidence, even self-respect, though they often proved uncomfortable. Face wounds were known to be the most devastating. By hiding the wounds behind the mask, the young men were able to return to relationships with their families and friends. Each mask required many weeks of work on the part of Woods, and other surgeons who followed his lead. A plaster cast was taken of the subject's wounded face – but only after the wounds and subsequent surgeries had totally healed. The crude process was itself a trial. The plaster cast was used to make a squeeze of
plastocene or clay. This disfigured bust was used as the foundation of all prosthetic restorative work, with the sculptor working to replace the missing components of the face with the shapes from the opposing side. The mask itself was made from a thin copper sheet – galvanized copper to facilitate painting after forming. Painting a realistic portrait onto the copper mask was as challenging as the sculpting: each was finished while the patient wore it, in order to most accurately match the tone of the flesh with the enamels. He produced a representation of
The Crucified Soldier called ''
Canada's Golgotha in 1919, which caused a diplomatic flap between the Canadian and German governments. His Machine Gun Corps Memorial'' at
Hyde Park Corner was also controversial. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1920.
Personal life Wood married Florence Mary Schmidt (1873–1969) in early 1903. Wood died in London in 1926 at the age of fifty-five. His grave can be found at St Michael's Church,
Amberley, West Sussex, with that of his wife. ==Selected public works==