Nat Gould

William Waterhouse Wooddisse 1897-1982

William Waterhouse Wooddisse was born on 21 December 1897 at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, the son of Thomas Wooddisse 1865-1933 and his wife née Mary Beardmore 1863-1949.

He was baptised on 20 February 1898 at Alstonefield in Staffordshire.

When the Census was taken in 1911 he was with his parents at Sandybrook House at Ashbourne.

He enlisted at Perth in Scotland with the 6th Battalion of the Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch) during the First World War, as a private soldier Regimental Number 267418.

In 1916 he was wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. During the whole course of the War he was wounded three times, as was his brother Thomas Wooddisse. On one occasion a piece of shrapnel was diverted into his lung by his cigarette case. He carried the shrapnel in his lung for the rest of his life without ill effect.

He became a farmer and dairyman in Ashbourne.

In 1928 he married Laura Mary Riley at Ashbourne. She was born in 1905 at Alstonefield, the daughter of Richard Riley 1849-1915 and his wife nee Mary Ellen Bestwick 1860-1943.

William Waterhouse Wooddisse died on 28 February 1982 at Derby aged 84 years, and was buried at Alstonefield.

His widow Laura Wooddisse nee Riley died on 4 October 1992 aged 87 years, and was also buried at Alstonefield where there is a monumental inscription to her memory and that of her husband.