JOHN MEDLEY WOOD 
John Medley Wood was born at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on 
December 1st, 1827, and died at Durban on August 26th, 1915, thus having 
reached the great age of 88. During his long life he had extraordinary health 
and strength, being able to do his daily work in all this time without any break. 
His long uninterrupted residence in Natal and his love for his adopted land 
made him essentially a Natalian and this is not surprising as, from the time 
he landed at The Point sixty years ago in 1852 until 1915, he only left Natal 
for three short periods. Indeed I think that latterly he made it a point of 
pride that Natal should be his land and gloried that he had been so steadfast 
to the country of his adoption. 
In his early days he followed the sea and only when his father came to 
Natal did he decide to leave it and settle in what was then an almost 
unknown part of Africa. At first he assisted his father in his duties of 
Sheriff of Natal but a little later he married the partner of his long life, 
Miss Hay garth, and began as a pioneer planter at Otterspool near the mouth 
of the Umhloti river. Here he was in his element. Always a lover and 
student of plants he not only observed and collected the native flora but 
experimented with the economic plants which in those days promised so 
much in Natal and gave such an interest to the lives of the pioneers. He 
grew arrowroot, coffee, sugar cane, tobacco and the tropical fruits, making 
many mistakes but helping to increase knowledge by his experiments. 
Arrowroot failed by reason of the restricted market. Coffee was attacked 
by Hemileict vastatrix but the cultivation and final success of sugar was 
largely due to the educated interest of our old friend. The more succulent 
vai'ieties of cane had not been an unqualified success and he found among 
certain imported specimens a hardier variety known as Ubacane and which is 
now the basis of the sugar production of Natal. Whilst living at Otterspool 
our friend, like many of the early settlers on the North Coast between the 
Umgeni and Tugela rivers, made trading expeditions over the last named 
river into Zululand. Native carriers were engaged who carried the stock in 
trade of blankets, picks and beads, and the trader went from kraal to kraal 
exchanging these goods for the cattle of the country, returning to Natal and 
selling the cattle to the Natal natives for the cash they had earned "lul< 
3 
A. B. H. II. 
