Professor Thomas Wood Papers

The archive contains papers relating to Thomas Wood's published works; papers concerning St. David's University College, Lampeter; papers relating to the Church, and personal papers.

Thomas Wood was born on the 30th April 1919, in Batley, Yorkshire, the only son of Willie and Mabel Wood. Educated at Batley Grammar School, he went on to study at the University of Leeds, graduating with a BA first class honours degree in English in 1941. In 1945, he was awarded a BD from the same institution, and in 1947 he received his MA with distinction.

Wood became a deacon in 1943, and was ordained as a priest the following year. He was made Assistant Curate at St. Anne's, Worksop in 1945, and married his wife Joan that same year. In 1947, he moved to Mansfield Parish Church as Senior Assistant Curate, and remained there until 1952, when he was made vicar of Seascale.

In 1957, Wood was appointed Head of the Department of Pastoral Theology at St. David's College, Lampeter. In 1977, he became Head of the Theology Department at the same institution, and in 1983 became Head of the Theology and Religious Studies Department. Wood was also Deputy Principal of St. David's College, Lampeter between 1971 and 1977. Throughout his period at Lampeter Wood held the position of D J James Professor of Pastoral Theology, and on his retirement in 1984, was made an Emeritus Professor by the University of Wales.

Wood was active on various committees and investigative commissions, mostly organised by the Church in Wales. These included the Churches' Council on Gambling (1965-1978); the Church in Wales Working Party on Marriage and Divorce (1972-1975), of which he was Chairman, and the Church in Wales Advisory Commission on Church and Society (1973-1985). Wood was an ecclesiastical judge, sitting at the Provincial Court of the Church in Wales from 1976, and a Bishop's selector from 1955 until 1966. He was also made Select Preacher at the University of Cambridge in 1961.

As a cleric and educationalist, Wood published variously. His articles can be found in Theology, Journal of Theological Studies and Trivium, amongst other journals. He contributed to the Dictionary of Christian Ethics in 1967 and 1986, and authored several works, including English Casuistical Divinity during the Seventeenth Century (1952), The Pastoral Responsibility of the Church Today (1958), Five Pastorals (1961), Some Moral Problems (1961) and Chastity Not Outmoded, (1965).

He died on the 26th November 1987.

The Data Protection Act 1998 applies to material in this archive which contains personal information. Access to this material may therefore be restricted.

The papers may be consulted through application to Peter Hopkins, Curator, Roderic Bowen Library and Archives, Trinity Saint David, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED. Tel 01570 424716, email: rodericbowenlibrary@tsd.ac.uk

Description compiled by Rhian Phillips, Archives Hub project archivist, with reference to Who Was Who, Vol. VIII: 1981-1990, (London: A and C Black, 1991) and the Thomas Wood Papers, University of Wales, Lampeter.

Basic finding aid available at the Founder's Library, University of Wales Lampeter.