Wendy Wood was born in October 1892 - in Kent, England. The future Scottish nationalist's family were in transit from Scotland to South Africa at the time. Wendy's mother was the grand-daughter of a highland crofter; her great-grandfather a sculptor who worked in Milan; her father though of Ulster origin had a Welsh mother called Gwendolin, and Wendy was named after her. In South Africa, Wendy was the first girl ever to become a member of the Boy Scouts. Her mother told her of great Scottish heroes like Wallace, and by the end of the Great War Wendy was becoming increasingly nationalistic. In 1928 she was one of the founders of the SNP, but in the 1930s decided a non-party approach was more effective. Staunch support came from the often republican miners in Fife. In 1932 Wendy led a group of nationalists in "storming" Stirling Castle to tear down the flag of English union and replace it with Scotland's lion rampant. Soldiers with fixed bayonets failed to stop them. In the thirties she also founded the "Scottish Watch", a youth organisation, and very successful while she ran it.

In the 1950s came protests against the use of "Elizabeth II" for the present Queen - she is after all Scotland's first monarch of that name. In 1952 an English company were closing down a Motherwell ironworks: with a female colleague Wendy, disguised as a workman, slipped in and somewhat derailed the train carrying out the asset-stripped equipment. Having applied, with some success, pressure for prison reform and social improvements in the fifties, 1960 saw her speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to try to mobilise them behind the re-convening of the Scottish parliament (which in 1707 was never properly dissolved, merely adjourned). This request was turned down. In 1965 she led a demonstration outside an Edinburgh museum, protesting against the removal of the St. Ninian's Isle treasure from its native area, Shetland. Such ethnic empathy was impartial; it ranged from sympathy for the persecuted Irish, the concentration-camped Boers, and the Rajed Indians, to support for the Icelanders in their 1970s "cod war" to stop fishing grounds being over-exploited. More than one "Union" flag, regarded as a symbol of Scottish subjugation, found its resting-place in Wendy's home or office - as carpet underlay! In 1972 came her fast for home rule. Promises were given, which were not kept. In 1949 she had founded the Scottish Patriots, and at the time of her death in June 1981 they were some 2000 strong.

Wendy Wood had many talents; she was a well-regarded artist, and a successful writer too; not only was she on the wireless, but in the early 1970s she often read Scottish stories on the BBC children's TV programme "Jackanory". Having spent over a decade as a crofter in Moidart (moving to Edinburgh in 1952) she had a wide span of experience to call upon. In all she wrote ten books, the last being her aptly-titled autobiography, "Yours Sincerely for Scotland".