Thomas Wood (composer)

Thomas Wood (28 November 1892–19 November 1950) was an English composer and author.

Wood was born in Chorley, Lancashire and attended Barrow Grammar School, also in Lancashire,[1] before studying at the University of Oxford and the Royal College of Music. In 1919 he was appointed Director of Music at Tonbridge School in Kent, returning to Oxford in 1924 to teach at Exeter College. During this period he composed several choral-orchestral works including Forty Singing Seamen (1925), Master Mariners (1927) and The Ballad of Hampstead Heath (1927). He went to Australia in 1930 and spent over two years travelling across the country. This prompted him to write his book Cobbers (1934) which the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes as "still the most perceptive and captivating characterization of Australia and its people ever written by a visitor". He continued to compose and wrote several other books, including an autobiography, True Thomas (1936), before his death of a heart attack in 1950.

Miss St Osyth Mahala Eustace-Smith(1886 - 1970) of Wormingford married Thomas Wood in 1924 at Wormingford Church. Before her marriage, on 7 June 1918 "The London Gazette" reported St Osyth receiving an OBE for her work as "Hon Secretary, Essex Local War Pensions Committee". After their marriage the new Mrs St Osyth Wood moved into Parsonage Hall, Bures and became great benefactor to the local community. She died at Wasperton, Warwickshire aged 84 years.

Wood wrote a rousing school song for Barrow Grammar School entitled 'Outward Bound'.

Here are the lyrics, also written by Thomas Wood:

OUTWARD BOUND

A song for the Grammar School, Barrow-in-Furness

Words and Music by Thomas Wood (at the school 1905-1907)

Autumn gold and winter weather

Summer dew and bluebell spring

Days afoot in Furness heather

These I knew, These were mine

These are part of me till I Perish

CHORUS

Westaway, the seas lie open

Eastaway, the sun rides high

Outward bound in morning glory

Free and ready, here am I

Friends to share in games and laughter

Songs at dusk and books at noon

Warnings that will tell hereafter

These you gave- You, my school

Knowing I shall prove myself Worthy

CHORUS

Harbour lights and clustered shipping

Clouds above the wheeling gulls

Flags aloft and ensigns dipping

Year by year, Showed the way

Shaped the course that I am now Making

CHORUS

Time will set the changes ringing

Those to come must have their day

Mine's at hand to claim me, bringing

Work to do, Risks to face

Worlds to conquer and the hour's Striking!

CHORUS

Bibliography
  • Cobbers (Oxford University Press, 1934)
  • Cobbers campaigning (Jonathan Cape, 1940)
  • Music and boyhood (Oxford University Press, 1925)
  • True Thomas (Jonathan Cape, 1936)

References
  1. Humphreys, Maggie; Evans, Robert (1997). Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury.
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