We announce today the death of Sir Joseph Hood, Mayor of Wimbledon and generous public benefactor of the Wimbledon and Morden districts. He had been a Conservative member for the borough from 1918 until 1924. It was expected that during his term of office as Mayor the new Town Hall and municipal buildings would be opened, possibly by a member of the Royal Family.

Sir Joseph was born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch on March 31st 1863. He was educated at the Ashby -de-la-Zouch Grammar School and admitted a solicitor in 1890 practicing in Liverpool until 1903. In 1902 he was engaged in the formation of the British-American Tobacco Company Limited and was appointed the first solicitor to the company and its associated companies. Later he became of those companies and subsequently one of the Deputy Chairmen. Parliamentary and other duties led him to resign these directorships in 1921. During the War he served on two committees of the Board of Trade and was Assistant Controller of the Department of Turkey. At the end of 1918 he was elected Coalition Unionist member for Wimbledon with a majority of over 10,000. During his Parliamentary career Sir Joseph was a member of the Tobacco Licensing Committee of the Board of Trade, the Advisory Committee of the Tobacco Control Board, and the Board of Trade Merchandise Marks Committee, of the last of which he was Deputy Chairman. In recognition of these and other services he was made a Baronet in 1922. Among his gifts to Wimbledon was that of 21 acres of land at Raynes Park adjoining Cannon Hill Common. This area he fully equipped as a recreation ground (Joseph Hood Recreation Ground) at a cost of £11,000 and handed over to Merton and Morden Council. He also had laid out, at a cost of £2,500 an area of 5 1/2 acres of vacant land at Garfield Road, South Wimbledon, as a recreation ground and in many  other ways that district found him a liberal benefactor. He and Lady Hood were given the Freedom of the Borough in 1924. He married first, in 1900, Katherine (who died in 1913), daughter of Mr. Martin Kenny of Ballindaggin, County Wexford, and by her had three daughters; and second, Marie Josephine, Daughter of Mr. Archibald Robinson of Dublin by whom he had two sons. The heir to the Baronetcy was born in 1916.