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Lieutenant-Colonel George Woolnough
Lieutenant-Colonel George Woolnough who was the last CO of 1st Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment and the first of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment after the Wiltshires amalgamated with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1959 died this year on 5th January, he was aged 97. He was awarded a Military Cross after leading an extremely hazardous night attack in the Italian campaign.
In September 1943, Woolnough landed in Italy, north of Reggio, with 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment (2 WR). The following month he was commanding a company which was ordered to capture a daunting hilltop position considered key to the battalion attack on Cantalupo, south of Isérnia.
The assault was made in darkness and in dense, thickly-wooded country intersected by deep ravines. Two platoons became detached from the main force, and Woolnough found himself approaching his objective with only one rifle platoon and his company HQ.
Despite strong opposition, he pressed forward and drove the enemy off the hill. The missing platoons did not arrive and it was impossible to reinforce him. One section of the remaining rifle platoon was overrun and all its men either killed or captured; but Woolnough held on to the position in the face of heavy mortar fire and a series of determined counter-attacks. He was awarded an Immediate MC.
George Frederick Woolnough, the son of an Army schoolmaster, was born at Aldershot on December 7 1914. The family lived in India for four years but returned in 1923, and George was educated at the Bishop Wordsworth School, Salisbury.
He gained a scholarship to the RMA Sandhurst, passed out third, and won a half blue for Athletics. He also represented the Army in the Inter-Services Championships.
After being commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment, in 1936 he accompanied 2nd Battalion to Palestine during the Arab Revolt. On the outbreak of war he went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. During the withdrawal to Dunkirk, with the Germans hard on their heels, a fellow officer with lofty concepts of military strategy suggested they construct a roadblock by moving a hedge to the middle of the road, then add a road sign to direct the enemy into a nearby pond.
After the evacuation, for which Woolnough was mentioned in despatches, in March 1942 he took part in the campaign in Madagascar against the Vichy French. They captured the town of Antisirane after a 17-mile forced march in darkness.
The invasion of Sicily followed, and in June 1944 the battalion took part in the breakout from the Anzio beachhead. When they were pinned down by intense machine-gun fire, Sergeant Maurice Rogers led a charge and knocked out two of the posts before being killed. Woolnough, who was a witness to this gallant action, contributed to the award of a posthumous VC.
After the battalion was withdrawn from Italy it joined the British Second Army for the final phase of the war in north-west Europe. Woolnough then served in BAOR, Singapore and Cyprus. He was on the directing staff at the Iraqi Staff College, Baghdad, before returning to Cyprus in 1958 to command 1st Battalion during the Eoka campaign.
He and his men had to deal with more than 50 incidents involving bombs, mines, ambushes and armed assaults. He was again mentioned in despatches. A number of staff appointments followed before he retired from the Army in 1965. He then moved into a cottage in a Wiltshire village and became secretary to the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral, a post that he held from 1966 to 1980. He was also a regional superintendent for St John Ambulance, a member of the parish council and a stalwart supporter of his local church. He remained in close touch with his friends in the regiment.