Harry Harvey Wood was appointed to the British Council in 1939 to run the Allied Centres in Scotland.

After the war, when Rudolph Bing was planning a new international cultural festival to be held in the UK, and was looking for a city to host it, Harvey Wood persuaded him to hold it in Edinburgh - and so the Edinburgh Festival was born in 1947.  Harvey Wood remained closely involved with the Festival for a number of years as chair of its Programme Committee.