Alfred Harold Wood OBE (4 May 1896 – 27 August 1989)[1] was a 20th-century Australian Christian minister, educator, writer, hymnologist and advocate of church union.
Early on, Wood supported Queen Salote with legal advice in her work to reconcile two Methodist factions and became well acquainted with and respected by the Royal Family and others.
At Wood's urging, scholarships were offered by the Tongan government to enable students to further their education in Australia, or go to Fiji for medical training.
Returning to Australia in 1937, Wood became principal of Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) in Kew, Victoria, from 1939 until his retirement in 1966.
Among them were Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Pacific historian and author of the definitive biography of Queen Salote of Tonga,[4] actor Monica Maughan and churchman and hymnologist the Rev.
A comprehensive 272-page biography by Ian Breward, Dr Harold Wood: A Notable Methodist, was published by Uniting Academic Press in Melbourne in 2013.