He was born at Woodland Mount, a large country house near
Huddersfield, on 29 April 1855 the son of
Joseph Woodhead, a newspaper owner (and later politician), and his wife Catherine Woodhead. He was educated at
Huddersfield College. He then studied medicine at
Edinburgh University, graduating MB ChB in 1878. From 1885 to 1890 he worked as a lab assistant in Edinburgh University, living then at 6 Marchhall Crescent. During his time in Edinburgh, in 1886, he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Sir William Turner,
Alexander Crum Brown,
Robert Gray and
Sir John Murray. In 1890, aged only 35, he became director of the Conjoint Laboratories of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons in
London. In 1899 he was made
professor of
pathology in
Cambridge University. He was the first editor of the
Journal of Pathology. In the
First World War he was the inspector of government laboratories serving all military hospitals. He was attached to the
RAMC at the rank of lieurenant colonel. Largely as a result of this service, he was knighted (KBE) by King
George V in 1919, as part of the
Birthday Honours. He died at
Aisthorpe Hall in
Lincolnshire on 29 December 1921 and is buried in
Cambridge City Cemetery. ==Family==