Place Name
William Page Wood (November 29, 1801 – July 10, 1881), 1st Baron Hatherley, was a lawyer and statesman who served as a Liberal Lord High Chancellor between 1868 and 1872 in William Ewart Gladstone’s first Government. But it was named here through a personal connection, as he was a friend to the former landowner Sir Charles J Selwyn, who like Wood was appointed a Lords Justice of Appeal-in-Chancery in 1868. Wood’s title came from his Baronage from his estate at Hatherley in Gloucestershire (the name means woodland clearing of a woman called Athryth). However, it was Wood’s niece, Kitty, who eclipsed his fame. As the wife of Captain William O’Shea she was involved in a huge political scandal after embarking on an affair with the nationalist Irish leader Charles Parnell. The two later married but Parnell’s mainstream political career was in tatters. The street name was chosen by Captain Charles W Selwyn who developed the land.
