Harold Walter Woodhouse (1910-1943)
Harold Walter Woodhouse (1910-1943)
Second World War Roll of Honour
Harold Walter Woodhouse was born at Tonbridge in Kent on 13 September 1910, the younger son of Ernest Walter Woodhouse, a coach painter and motor car builder, and Jane Ann (née Hagger) Woodhouse of 1 Rose Terrace, London Road, Tonbridge. He was educated at Penarth County School in Glamorgan and University College, Cardiff and graduated from the University of Wales with a First Class degree in Mathematics, later adding further honours in Chemistry and a First Class in the Diploma of Education. A period of teaching followed at Neath County School before he matriculated at Downing College as an affiliated student in October 1936. He studied Mathematics and became a Wrangler (gaining a First in his Tripos exams) in 1937, graduating the following year with honours and distinction in Part III of the Mathematical Tripos. He was then appointed as a schoolmaster at the City of London School in Westminster, where he taught maths. The College student magazine, The Griffin, described him as an “abundantly active, keen and cheerful man of the highest ideals and wide interests”, which included camping, swimming, fly-fishing and acting.
On 1 September 1939, the staff and pupils of the City of London School were evacuated to Marlborough College, two days before the declaration of war following the German invasion of Poland. Harold Woodhouse left the school in the autumn term of 1940 to join the forces. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, where he rose to the rank of Sergeant before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 14 June 1941. He was promoted to Flying Officer on 14 June 1942. He and his crew joined 9 Squadron from No. 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit on 3 May 1943.
On the night of 25/26 May 1943, Bomber Command dispatched 323 Lancasters, 169 Halifaxes, 142 Wellingtons, 113 Stirlings and 12 Mosquitos for an operation on Dusseldorf. Broken clouds over the Dutch coast on the outward trip turned into total cloud over the target with the result that the bombing was scattered over a large area and largely ineffective. As the bombers turned for home, they were faced with headwinds of between 40 to 60 miles per hour and with the light of a half-moon which appeared from behind the clouds at 3am. Harold Woodhouse and his crew took off from RAF Bardney at 11.19pm on 25 May in Lancaster Mk III ED834 WS-Z for the operation. The aircraft had dropped its bomb load and was heading back to base at a height of 18,000 feet when it was attacked and shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf110 night fighter. The aircraft crashed into the Scheldt, some two kilometres to the south of Vlissingen, Zeeland at 3.42am with the loss of the entire crew of seven men. Theirs was one of twenty-nine aircraft lost on the raid. Harold's body was washed ashore in the Vlissingen Buitenhaven on 8 June 1943 and was buried two days later.
Flying Officer Woodhouse was killed in action on 26 May 1943, aged 32. He is buried at Vlissingen Northern Cemetery and commemorated on the war memorials at the City of London School and Cardiff University.
Sources and Image
City of London School Archives
