Harvey Wood, England men’s 1908 Olympic gold medal-winning goalkeeper.

The Hockey Museum volunteer James Ormandy spent a large part of 2019 researching hockey in Yorkshire to produce an article “When Hull Got Hooked on Hockey” for the Playing Pasts website.

When Hull Got Hooked on Hockey | Playingpasts.co.uk

During his research James came across an article on the East Riding Museum website on Harvey Jesse Wood from Beverley, the British goalkeeper from the 1908 Olympic Games. It was part of a panel from the museum’s exhibition Sporting Beverley.

The Harvey Jesse Wood text panel from the Sporting Beverley exhibition at East Riding Museum. Click the image to link to the full exhibition PDF.

Just a few weeks later James purchased a copy of a photograph from the February 1908 edition of The Bystander magazine of “H. J. Wood, the Midlands goalkeeper” in action against the South territorial team.

Photograph captioned “H. J. Wood” from The Bystander magazine, February 1908.

With his article on Harvey Wood published on Playing Pasts, all seemed fine – that is until James recently visited The Hockey Museum. Exploring deeper amongst the Museum’s library and archive, James came across a feature article on Harvey Wood (no middle initial given) in the 1 May 1908 edition of Hockey magazine. It claimed that England goalkeeper was born in Staffordshire not Yorkshire as previously believed. This made sense as he played for West Bromwich HC, Staffordshire county and the Midlands.

The article in Hockey magazine (May 1908) which records Harvey Wood’s birthplace: “Born in Staffordshire, Mr Wood is only 23 years of age …”

Using the British Newspaper Archive, James set about trying to resolve the issue. Many early reports had Harvey listed on England team sheets as H. J. Wood, but later ones were either H. Wood or by the time of the Olympic Games in 1908, H. I. Wood.

Extracts from the British Newspaper Archive.

During the Olympic Games the England goalkeeper was listed always as H.I. Wood. The H.I. Woods outnumbered the H.J. Wood references by a factor of 4-1 in the 1908 hockey reports.

James set about trying to find H.I. Wood using online genealogy service Findmypast. Only one result fitted the timeline: Harvey Icke Wood who was baptised in late 1884 in West Bromwich, but there were no other references. In the 1901 census James found a Harvey Wood, son of Peter Wood owner of P&S Wood Ltd, the second-generation brickmakers whose father George (Harvey’s grandfather) had left £35,000 to his sons when he died in 1884. His sons followed George into the business. Searching on “Peter Wood” rather than “Harvey Icke” bizarrely brought up Harvey Icke Wood in the 1911 census working as an Insurance Agent. This rather put to question the efficiency of the search engines!

What do we know about Harvey Wood?

He played three seasons for West Bromwich HC two in the 2nd XI before replacing England international Lancelot Augustus Gurney in the 1st XI goal. West Bromwich would go unbeaten in the 1907-08 season. Wood played for Staffordshire and the Midlands having reportedly outstanding performances leading to his debut for England against Ireland in March 1908. He played in all the home internationals and the Olympic Games earning seven caps but seemingly never played again.

Harvey Jesse Wood or Harvey Icke Wood?

Across the internet, Wiki sites and Olympic history sites list Harvey Jesse Wood as the 1908 Olympic goalkeeper, but the vast majority reference the text from the 2016 East Riding Museum website and offer no other evidence.

Harvey Jesse Wood was born in Beverley, son of the local butcher who was a notable local sportsman playing cricket and rugby and appears in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses as a railway clerk living in Beverley. Even though both Beverley and West Bromwich railway stations were part of the London & Northern Railway Company, it seems highly unlikely he ever moved to West Bromwich.

Harvey Icke Wood was born in West Bromwich into a brickmaking dynasty that his grandfather George (1808-1880) had created. Seven of his nine sons became brickmakers including Harvey’s father Peter. The family could be classed as rich industrialists, part of the upper-middle class as were the members of the England team of 1908. His father’s company P&S Wood Ltd owned the Pump House Brickworks whose trademark was the star of David. They exported Staffordshire blue bricks across Europe with, ironically, Germany being one of their biggest export markets in the 1900s. Harvey visited Canada in 1912 and married in 1916 worked as a bookkeeper living in Bath until his death 1963.

Further research by The Hockey Museum’s Curator Shane Smith and Archivist Marcus Wardle revealed that the Hockey Association’s (HA) England selection book had Wood listed as H. I. Wood and not H. J. Wood. In the book, the I and J appear similar enough to cause a possible confusion, but distinct enough to be identifiably different. Note the J in “J. Y. Robinson” (John Yate Robinson) which loops below the line of the other letters, and the I in “A. I. Draper” (Arnold Inman Draper) which sits neatly on the line with no lower loop.

The Hockey Association selection book of England international players. From The Hockey Museum collection.

So, our evidence:

• The article in Hockey lists Wood’s birthplace as Staffordshire.
• The majority of the newspaper team lists record an H. I. Wood (not H. J. Wood).
• Handwriting evidence in the Hockey Association selection book records him as H. I. Wood in 1908; and
• He played for West Bromwich HC in the Midlands.

Given all this, it would seem that sports historians to date have credited the wrong Harvey Wood. Once again, the redress of history began in The Hockey Museum’s archive by one of our research volunteers.