Woolley, Geoffrey, 1915-2010

Person

Woolley, Geoffrey, 1915-2010

• Woolley, Geoffrey Downing, 1915-2010

Geoffrey Downing Woolley (born 29 June 1915), was the son of William Downing Woolley of Rhyd Hall, Tredegar, Monmouthshire, colliery manager, and Gladys Parry his wife. Woolley was educated at Brean House, Clifton College and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he read English and law. He worked on the Monmouthshire Beacon newspaper in 1938, and the Western Mail, before joining the Times of London in May 1939. A member of the London Welsh Territorials, he transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1939, serving first with 303 Battery, 99th (London Welsh) H.A.A. Regiment, 1939-1940, transferring to 118 Battery, 75th Anti-Tank Regiment, and serving with them through France, Belgium and Netherlands into Germany, ending the war in Schleswig-Holstein. In May 1945 he transferred to a staff job as PA to the Administrative & Quartering Brigadier in the Schleswig-Holstein District, based in Plön Castle, and was demobilised in 1946. Returning to the Times newspaper, he was their Washington DC correspondent, 1948-1952, and was in Germany in 1953; he edited the Times's letters page, 1953-1983. Woolley and his partner Ian Mylles entered into a civil union in 2007. He died 17 February 2010.

Obituaries include the Times, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/AWAAoaF1YEY, the Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/geoffrey-woolley-times-letters-editor-whose-pages-helped-set-britains-public-agenda-1922896.html, and the Edward Thomas Fellowship newsletter, no. 64 (Aug. 2010).