People Australia

Bill Wood, 1941

B883, NX205752 (National Archives of Australia)

William Arnold Whitfeld (Bill) Wood (1911-1976), journalist and Communist 

Birth: 3 December 1911 at Mosman, New South Wales, son of George Arnold Wood (1865-1928), professor of history, born at Salford Lancashire, England, and native-born Eleanor Madeline, née Whitfeld (1873-1967). Marriage: 1945 at Chatswood, NSW, to Marcia Isobel Gurney (1918-1994). They had one daughter and one son. Death: 22 April 1976 at Mosman, Sydney, NSW. Religion: [on army service record] Congregationalist. 

• Educated at Sydney Grammar School. BA Sydney University. BA 1936 and MA 1945, Oxford University. NSW Rhodes Scholar 1932.
• Became interested in socialist politics while at Oxford. Former president of Oxford Union. Campaign director British Labor Party in Frome and worked in journalism on The Times (London). Member of editorial staff of the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 1936-1938. Foreign editor on Labor Daily (Sydney) 1939-1940.
• Enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 5 February 1945. Served in NSW and was demobilized on 12 December 1946.
• Joined State Labor Party in 1940 and was editor of its paper, ‘Progress’ 1942-1945. Deacon in Anglican Church in 1945. Stood twice for election for the State Labor Party for the Liberal-held seat of Willoughby in 1941 and 1943.
• Represented Communist Party of Australia in two elections including candidate for North Sydney in 1946 Federal election and polled 2000 votes in the ‘blue-ribbon’ Liberal-held seat of Mosman in the 1959 State election.
• Worked on Tribune for 22 years including as foreign editor in 1947. Was employed as a plumber’s assistant on the waterfront during a Tribune re-shuffle.
• Retired from Tribune in about 1966 and became Librarian at Sydney University’s Fisher Library for nine years until his death.
• Cause of death: cerebral haemorrhage (hours) and arteriosclerosis (years).
• Brother of author and war correspondent Alan Wood (Alliott Whitfeld Wood - 1914-1957) and the New Zealand historian, professor Frederick Lloyd Whitfeld Wood (1902-1989).

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 434; Malcolm Henry Ellis The Garden path (Sydney, 1949); Recorder, June 1976 No. 82; Tribune, 8 March 1946 p 8, 5 May 1976 p 8, 28 Apr 1976 p.11