Renowned Actor’s Death Sparked Furor in 1863

In his prime John Wood was hailed as an actor who “stood alone on the Pacific Coast”.

But when he died he became an embarrassment to almost all who knew him. And the circumstances surrounding his death touched off a furor in the Victoria medical community.

Was he the victim of medical malpractice—or of a self-administered drug overdose?

Everyone had an opinion but no one was sure, and the coroner’s jury, equally mystified, returned a verdict of “death from a dose of opiate, taken while in a diseased state of health, but by whom administered, there was not sufficient evidence to show”.

Few were satisfied with the vague verdict—least of all Wood’s attending doctor who had to sue Wood’s estate for services rendered. The resulting trial was brief but acrimonious—and a great story for next week’s Chronicles.

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PHOTO: Although she’d divorced him shortly before his final ‘illness,’ the former Mrs. John Wood bought him what was said to have been the most expensive headstone in Victoria’s Quadra Street Burying Ground (today’s Pioneer Square).