Colonel William Gregory Wood-Martin was an author and antiquarian, best known for his work as an archaeologist in Ireland.
Early life
William Gregory Wood-Martin was born in County Sligo in Ireland on 16 July 1847 in the midst of the Great Famine. His parents, James Wood and Anne Martin, were also both natives of County Sligo and, as their only child, he was the heir to both the Woodville and Cleveragh estates. Wood-Martin received his early education at home, and completed his academic training first in Switzerland, and then in Belgium.
Military career
Upon the completion of his education, in 1866 he joined the British Army and studied at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, after which he was commissioned into the 24th Regiment. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the 8th Brigade, North Irish Division, and spent the remainder of his career attached to the Sligo Artillery and the Sligo Rifles, where he was lieutenant colonel in command between April 1883 and November 1902. He received medals for his service as an Aide-de-Camp from three successive British Monarchs; Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and King George V.
Marriage and return to Sligo
In 1873, Wood-Martin married Frances Dorothea Dodwell-Robinson, another Sligo native, who joined him first in Brighton and then in Dublin, following the demands of his career. In 1877 Wood-Martin returned to Cleveragh House, his mothers' family home in east Sligo town, to care for his ailing father. Upon his return, Wood-Martin was appointed as High Sheriff of Sligo, and served in this role for a year. The income from his estates likely served as the bulk of his financial support at the end of this term, however he was active in his community and served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of the County.
Though Wood-Martin became a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1883, and both published with and presented to that august body, his association with the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland,, dominated his antiquarian career. Wood-Martin became a fellow of the Association in October 1882, and was appointed as The Local Secretary for Sligo in 1883. That fall, he hosted a meeting of the Association in Sligo. In 1886, when the men holding the positions of Honorary Provincial Secretary for Connaught for the Association and Editor of the Association's journal died, Wood-Martin was appointed to these positions. In January 1888, Wood-Martin became the Associations Honorary Secretary alongside William Frederick Wakeman. Wood-Martins membership in the Association was a troubled one. His Editorship only lasted for three years, and a quiet fog of scandal hangs over his departure. There were ongoing issues between Wood-Martin and the Council of the Association about the size and contents of the journal, as well as his apparent misplacing of some valuable wood blocks which belonged to the Association. He resigned as Editor in 1889, and ceased publishing in the journal. He left the organisation entirely in 1892. Afterwards, Wood-Martin began publishing in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology as a member of the Ulster Archaeological Society, which had just been founded.
Wood-Martin and his wife, Francis Dorothea, had six children; James Isadore, Henry Roger, Gregory Gonville, Francis Winchester, Frances Nora, and Annette Kathleen. Only three of his children survived him; Henry Rodger, Gregory Gonville, and Annette Kathleen, and only Gregory married and had children. Wood-Martin died on 16 November 1917 at his Cleveragh estate. His children erected a granite memorial to his memory in the cemetery at St. Anne’s in Strandhill, Co. Sligo.
