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The son of the
Reverend Frederick Wodehouse and his wife Alice Norman Atherton Wodehouse was
born in Basford on 18th May 1887. From an early age he was destined
for a naval career and after spending his early years at the Royal Naval School
Lee on Solent he entered the
Britannia
Royal
Naval
College
as an Officer Cadet in 1902, being promoted to the rank of Midshipman the
following year. After a successful time at Britannia, where he too firsts in all
the required subjects he was commissioned as an acting Sub Lieutenant in 1906,
with his rank being confirmed the following year in 1907 which was also the year
that he was first capped by the Royal Navy at rugby. The skills that he had
acquired at the
Britannia
College
obviously transcended those that would be required for a career at sea.
Wodehouse missed
the Army v Navy match in 1908, the year that he was promoted to full Lieutenant
by the Navy; he was then a continual member of the Navies side from 1909 until
1914 winning seven Royal Navy caps in total. At the same time his career as a
member of the United Services side was equally illustrious. Given his rising
stature as a rugby player it is perhaps surprising that Wodehouse played only
once for the Barbarians during a drawn game against
Leicester
in 1909. The following year saw two major milestones in the young Wodehouse’s
life. He was selected both to specialize as a gunnery officer by the Royal Navy
and also to play rugby by his country for the first time. His
debut cap was against
France
on March 10th 1910 during the 3-11 away win that was part of
England
’s championship winning run, their first since 1892. Following this Wodehouse
was a permanent fixture in the
England
side until 1913 winning fourteen caps in total and scoring two tries for his
country, both in 1911 against
France
and
Scotland
.
An uncompromising
forward his leadership skills, which were to become increasingly evident to the
Royal Navy, also led to his captaining
England
on six occasions. This included the whole of the 1913 season, where an
undefeated
England
claimed an elusive first Grand Slam. As the Times put it “such success as the English teams had this season could only have
been achieved under the best leadership”. This was very much the pinnacle
of his international career and after the three points to nil defeat of
Scotland
on March 15th 1913 at Twickenham that secured this achievement he
never played for his country again.
During the First
World War Wodehouse served as a gunnery officer primarily on the Battleship HMS
Revenge, taking part in the Battle of Jutland. In 1915 Wodehouse dived over the
side of his ship to save a drowning seaman who had fallen from another ship
saving him from drowning, an act of bravery that earned him the Royal Humane
Society Silver Medal. His competence as well as his bravery was also recognized
in 1915 with promotion to Lieutenant Commander.
By the end of the
war Wodehouse was thirty one. Although his first class rugby career was over his
naval career continued apace. Promoted to full commander in 1919 he was posted
to
China
as fleet gunnery officer, a tour of duty that earned him the Chinese order of
the Striped Tiger. Returning to
Britain
in 1923 Wodehouse married Theodosia Boyle, having in the fullness of time two
sons. Despite his growing family the demands of the Naval service continued.
Promoted to Captain in 1926 he attended the
Imperial
Defense
College
to undertake the senior officer’s war course before commanding the cruisers
HMS Ceres and HMS Calypso. This was eventually followed with command of the
Royal
Navy
College
at
Dartmouth
in 1931. After a tour as Flag Captain in the Mediterranean on HMS Barham in
1938 Wodehouse was appointed head of the British Military Mission in
Portugal
and is credited with helping to prevent
Portugal
falling under the influence of the Spanish Fascists. He also found time to
serve as Aide de Camp to King George VI which resulted in his being presented
the Companion of the Order of the
Bath
in 1939.
Promoted to Rear
Admiral three months before the outbreak of World War Two he was appointed as
Admiral in charge of the Naval Dockyards in
Gibraltar
before retiring from the Royal Navy as a Vice Admiral on May 8th
1940. Wodehouse, however, was not the sort of man to sit at home whilst there
was a war on.
Almost
immediately after his official retirement from naval service Wodehouse returned
to sea duty as Commodore (2nd Class) Royal Naval Reserve. Although
this was essentially a drop in rank it was a common move for officers in his
experience who wished to do their bit. His new duties meant he was now
responsible for the safety of convoys of Merchant vessels, an often less than
simple task given the individuality common amongst the Masters of the Merchant
fleet who were used to a huge degree of autonomy whilst on their own ships.
Attached to HMS Eaglet in Liverpool Wodehouse finally took command of convoy
OB337, which sailed on June 20th 1941. This convoy was made up of
vessels headed for southern Africa, with Wodehouse himself sailing on, the
Robert L Holt bound for Warri in
Nigeria
. With the OB series of convoys as the constituent vessels were headed for a
variety of ports in Sothern Africa it was usual for the convoy to disperse and
each vessel head it’s own way from a position roughly seven hundred and fifty
miles west of Lands end.
In these early
stages of the war at sea the U boats’ unrestricted campaign against allied
Merchant vessels was proving as devastating as it had in world war one. The
beauty of the convoy system was that it made the merchantmen both hard to find
by the enemy and as far as the Royal Navy was concerned made protection, or at
least retribution, far easier to achieve. The dispersal system used in the OB
convoys was a great weakness and one that the U Boats were more than happy to
exploit along the coast of
West Africa
. Shortly after the convoys dispersal the Robert L Holt with Wodehouse aboard
met the U69 on July 4th 1941. It was a predictably one sided affair
and the Robert L Holt was sunk by gunfire. There were no survivors.
Sources
"The
Complete Who's Who of England Rugby Union Internationals", R Maule,
Breedon 1992
The
Times Online Digital Archive
The
London Gazette Online
Wikepedia
www.unithistories.com
www.naval-history.net
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The
Rugby History Society