A. Harold Wood
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Reverend Dr A. Harold Wood OBE (1894?-1989) was a Methodist then Uniting Church Minister and missionary in Tonga where he was at Tupou College. He was also Principal of the Methodist Ladies' College, Kew, Victoria. He was a qualified as a barrister in Victoria. He was also a musician and chaired the ecumenical committee to produce The Australian Hymn Book (published elsewhere as With One Voice) published in 1977 ISBN 1-86371-150-3. He was married to Dora, and their son H. D'Arcy Wood was President of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church between 1991-94.
He spent thirteen years in Tonga, he developed a special fondness and love for the people and the country and well acquainted and respected by the Royal Family and others. From 1924 to 1937 he was Principal of Tupou College, which grew from 30 students to almost 400 boarders becoming the biggest school in the country. He supported the late Queen Salote with legal advise in her work to reconcile two Methodist factions.
As an educator, he wrote books on Tongan history and geography which are in the 2000s still used in secondary schools as textbooks. He took over the training of candidates into the church ministry. At his instigation, scholarships were offered by the government to successful students to go to Australia for further education, and to Fiji for medical training.
On his return to Australia, he was an advocate for the union of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches leading to the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia.
Until his retirement he was Minister at the now Deepdene Uniting Church, which he had caused to be renamed St; Paul's.
He has been honoured:
- the mainly Tongan congregation in Auburn, New South Wales naming their church after him - Harold Wood Auburn Uniting Church
- Lindsay Falvey dedicated the book Religion and Agriculture: Sustainability in Christianity and Buddhism ISBN 0-9751000-2-5 to him
