Wood served as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain at the Ministry of Health, establishing a close personal and political alliance.

As Secretary of State for Air in the months before the Second World War he oversaw a huge increase in the production of warplanes to bring Britain up to parity with Germany.

When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, Wood was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which post he adopted policies propounded by John Maynard Keynes, changing the role of HM Treasury from custodian of government income and expenditure to steering the entire British economy.

[1] His father was appointed to be minister of Wesley's Chapel in London, where Wood grew up, attending nearby Central Foundation Boys' School.

[1] Wood was first elected to office as a member of the London County Council (LCC) at a by-election on 22 November 1911, representing the Borough of Woolwich for the Municipal Reform Party.

[6] When Baldwin succeeded Law in 1924, Wood was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain.

[7] Wood's political standing was marked by his appointment as a civil commissioner during the general strike of 1926,[1] and, unusually for a junior minister, as a privy councillor in 1928.

As minister in charge of the General Post Office (GPO), Wood inherited an old-fashioned organisation, not equipped to meet the needs of the 1930s.

[1] Wood considered reconstituting the whole of the GPO, changing it from a government department to what would later be called a quango, and he set up an independent committee to advise him on this.

[13] Most importantly, Wood transformed the senior management of the GPO and negotiated a practical financial deal with HM Treasury.

There was also a marked improvement in maternal mortality, mainly due to the discovery of antibiotics able to counteract septicaemia, but also because a full-time, salaried midwifery service was created under the Midwives Act of 1936.

[13] When Anthony Eden resigned from Chamberlain's government in March 1938, Wood moved to be Secretary of State for Air in the ensuing reshuffle.

[1] Wood's tenure as Secretary of State for Air coincided with the Phoney War, and during this time he limited RAF activity to dropping propaganda leaflets rather than strategic bombing.

When Leo Amery urged him to destroy the Black Forest with incendiary bombs in reaction to the invasion of Poland, he is said to have replied "Are you aware it is private property?...

In May 1940, as a trusted friend, Wood told Chamberlain "affectionately but firmly" that after the debacle of the British defeat in Norway and the ensuing Commons debate, his position as Prime Minister was impossible and he must resign.

[22] He did not live to see it come into effect; he died suddenly at his London home on the morning of the day on which he was due to announce PAYE in the House of Commons.

Wood was referred to in the book Guilty Men by Michael Foot, Frank Owen and Peter Howard (writing under the pseudonym "Cato"), published in 1940 as an attack on public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany.