Catalogue description WOOD, Searles Valentine, the younger (1830-1884)

Papers of Searles Valentine Wood jnr, [1862-1881], comprising:
Illustrated manuscript, 'A memoir in explanation of the structure of the glacial and post glacial beds.... in the Thames valley between London and the sea...', 1867; Ordnance Survey maps of East Anglia and the Thames Valley, annotated with geological lines, notes and colouring by Searles Valentine WOOD jnr, which were used as field maps during his research into glacial deposits in the south east of England, [1862-1881]; File of letters concerning the complaint by Searles Valentine Wood jnr about the alterations made to Joseph Prestwich's published paper on the Crag of Norfolk, Mar-Apr 1875.

Reference: LDGSL/713

Searles Valentine Wood jnr, was born on February 1830 at Hasketon, Suffolk. His father, Searles Valentine Wood senior (1798–1880), was a keen geologist and his only child followed in his footsteps, working with him on fossiliferous Eocene deposits Hordle cliff, Hampshire, as early as 1843.

Wood attended King's College School (the grammar school which was once attached to King's College London) between 1839-1843 and continued his education in France until 1845. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1851, but after practising law in Woodbridge, Suffolk for a number of years, gave it up to purse geology full-time. Wood became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1864.

Wood's main focus of interest was on Tertiary and post-tertiary geology, and is best known for his study of glacial beds and deposits on which he published nearly sixty papers, many in conjunction with his friend Frederic William Harmer. Although a virtual invalid for the last ten years of his life, he continued to study and to submit papers for publication right up to his death on 14 December 1884.