Tom Hood

Tom Hood (19 January 1835 - 20 November 1874), was an English humorist and playwright, son of the poet Thomas Hood, was born at Lake House, Leytonstone.

After attending University College School and Louth Grammar School he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1853, where he passed all the examinations for the degree of BA., but did not graduate. At Oxford he wrote his "Farewell to the Swallows" (1853) and "Pen and Pencil Pictures" (1857). He began to write for the "Liskeard Gazette" in 1856, and edited that paper in 1858-1859. He then obtained a position in the War Office, which he filled for five years, leaving in 1865 to become editor of "Fun", the comic paper, which became very popular under his direction. A good friend of W. S. Gilbert's, a frequent contributor to "Fun", Hood wrote the burlesque, "Robinson Crusoe; or, The Injun Bride and the Injured Wife" (1867, together with Gilbert, H. J. Byron, H. S. Leigh and Arthur Sketchley). Hood's "Fun" gang also included playwright Thomas W. Robertson, among others.

In 1867 he first issued "Tom Hood's Comic Annual". In 1861 he had appeared "The Daughters of King Daher, and other Poems", after which he published, in conjunction with his sister, Frances Freeling Broderip, a number of amusing books for children. His serious novels, including "Captain Masters's Children" (1865), were not so successful. Hood drew with considerable facility, among his illustrations being those of several of his father's comic verses. In private life his geniality and sincere friendliness secured him the affection and esteem of a wide circle of acquaintance.

A memoir by his sister, FF Broderip, is prefixed to the edition of his poems published in 1877. In 1925, a school in Leytonstone was renamed after Hood. [Victoria County History of Essex, 1973]

References

*1911