Harry Harvey Wood
Henry Harvey Wood FRSE OBE (1903–1977) was a Scottish literary and artistic figure best known as a founder of the Edinburgh International Festival. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 5 September 1903 the second of three children to Henry Wood (d.1934) a paper-maker, and his wife, Anne Cassidy. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh on Calton Hill then studied at the Edinburgh College of Art. He then moved to Edinburgh University to study English Literature under a Vans Dunlop Scholarship. He graduated MA in 1931. He began lecturing in English Literature and Rhetoric at Edinburgh immediately after graduating. He spoke with a lisp. In the Second World War he was declared unfit for active service, but worked briefly in Intelligence. Wood established a branch of the British Council in Edinburgh in 1940. He enlisted the help of artistic and literary friends such as the poet Edwin Muir In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Stanley Cursiter, James Cameron Smail, Thomas Elder Dickson and James Pickering Kendall. He also published critical editions of works by Robert Henryson and John Marston as well as a book on Scottish literature.