Nicholas Wood (1832 – 24 December 1892) was a British industrialist and Conservative Party politician.[1]
He was born in Killingworth, Northumberland, where his father, also Nicholas Wood, was a locomotive engineer. The family subsequently moved to Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, where they took part in developing the coalfields. Educated at Repton School, he went on to be the proprietor of a number of mines in the Hetton area, as well as having interests in shipping and other industries. In 1881 he married Edith Florence Jervis of Staffordshire. He was a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant of County Durham.
He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Houghton-le-Spring at the 1886 general election, having contested the seat unsuccessfully in 1885.[2] He was defeated at the 1892 general election. He was believed to have been defeated by the votes of local miners who had been engaged in a lengthy strike and of Irish immigrants due to his opposition to Home Rule.[3] He died from typhoid fever later that year in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, London, aged 60.[4] He was buried in the churchyard at Saltwood near Hythe, Kent on 29 December.[5]