SEARLES

VALENTINE

See also:

• WOOD, ANTHONY A2 (1632-1695)
• WOOD, JOHN GEORGE (1827—1889)
• WOOD, MRS HENRY [ELLEN] (1814—1887)
• SEARLES VALENTINE WOOD (1798—188o)

WOOD (1798—188o)  , English palaeontologist, was born on the 14th of February 1798 . He went to sea in 1811 as a midshipman in the East India Company's service, which he left, however, in 1826 . He then settled at Hasketon near Woodbridge, Suffolk . He devoted himself to a study of the mollusca of the Newer Tertiary (Crag) of Suffolk and Norfolk, and the Older Tertiary (Eocene) of the Hampshire basin . On the latter subject he published A Monograph of the Eocene Bivalves of England (1861—1871), issued by the Palaeontographical Society . His chief work was A Monograph of the Crag Mollusca (1848—1856), published by the same society, for which he was awarded the Wollaston medal in 186o by the Geological Society of London; a supplement was issued by him in 1872—1874, a second in 1879, and a third (edited by his son) in 1882 . He died at Martlesham, near Woodbridge, on the 26th of October 1880 . His son, Searles Valentine Wood (183o-1884), was for some years a solicitor at Woodbridge, but gave up the profession and devoted his energies to geology, studying especially the structure of the deposits of the Crag and glacial drifts .