The George Henry Wood Collection

This article presents information about labor historian James Henry Wood. Wood was always catholic in his interests and activities. Born in Bristol in 1872 or 1873, he was trained as an engineer, but applied himself to statistics, and was eventually appointed to the statistical staff of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade. From the late 1890s until about 1912, the Labour Department was involved in the gathering of wage enquiry and Wood was involved in the gathering of wage statistics and other material connected with labour questions generally. Wood's work on wage statistics brought him into close contact with the employers and trade unionists of the various industries which he studied, and particularly so in the Yorkshire woollen and worsted trade which dominated so much of his later career. He had certainly contacted many Yorkshire textile trade unionists, such as Allen Gee and Ben Turner, before coming to live and work in Yorkshire. Although frequently in conflict with trade-union opinion, Wood's statistics did not reflect an ignorance of labour's attitudes.