[4][5] Due to the Second World War Muir Wood joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as a commissioned officer on 5 October 1942.

[7] After leaving the navy in 1946 Muir Wood worked for the Southern Railway where he helped to design bridges and the remediation of landslips at Folkestone Warren, Kent.

[1] In 1952 he joined Halcrow, the engineering consultancy, where he began work on the Channel Tunnel, a project he would repeatedly return to over the next twenty years.

[1][9] He was closely involved with a campaign launched by New Civil Engineer to rescue Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Thames Tunnel from a plan to shroud its lining with sprayed concrete.

[5][12] Muir Wood was appointed a Knight Bachelor on 31 December 1981, the knighthood was conferred by Queen Elizabeth II on 23 March 1982.