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#Post#: 31473--------------------------------------------------
Charles 'Peter' Garfield Woodruff MBE 1920-2019
DIR By: ScottyQuin
Date: November 14, 2019, 5:10 am
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Charles ‘Peter’ Garfield Woodruff 1920-2019
At the Harlequin’s Players’ Association Lunch at the RAC last
Friday, there was one notable absentee, Peter Woodruff. The
following day the news broke that he had collapsed and died at
Leicester station on his way to the Lunch. Having just
celebrated his 99th birthday, he was England’s oldest
international. Having been born in Newport, he might have played
for Wales. Indeed, he had been picked for a Welsh trial before
playing in an English one. However, he withdrew through injury
from the Welsh one and went on to gain four caps on the wing for
England in the 1950-51 season at the age of 29.
This was one of the many contradictions in his life. Even his
name was a source of confusion. To his playing compatriots, he
was always known as Charlie. However to his family, he was
Peter. The story behind this is that his mother had wanted to
call him Peter but the matriarch of the family, his grandmother,
had dictated that he should be called Charles. So he was
christened Charles.
Peter was born on October 30th 1920 to Cew and Doris Woodruff.
He was one of their five sons and a daughter. He grew up in
Newport and like many a player of that generation, his rugby
career was interrupted by the Second World War. During this, he
served in the RAF flying Dakotas for Transport command. One of
his missions was to drop paratroopers over France as part of
D-Day. During the war, he married Eileen and they had three
daughters and a son.
Demobbed as a Flight Lieutenant, Peter joined the Civil Service.
Initially, he played for Cheltenham. When work took him to Kent,
he joined Harlequins at the insistence of Peter Brook, the
former Harlequin and England forward, a master at Clifton
College who had recommended the likes of Phil Davies, Roger
Whyte and John Currie to join the Club. His first appearance was
against Cardiff in February 1950. Over the next 14 seasons, he
appeared definitely 190 times, scoring 62 tries. Interestingly,
he was presented a tankard celebrating his 200th appearance for
the Club at the match against London Irish in February 1958. So
he may have played many more times. By then, he was living in
Stroud and often turned out for Cheltenham if he could not make
the Quin’s games, especially the away matches. In addition to
Cheltenham, Quins and England, Peter also made appearances for
the Civil Service, Kent, Gloucestershire, Western Counties,
London Counties and the Barbarians. Having made his last match
with Quins at the age of 42, he eventually hung up his boots at
the age of 56 playing for Stroud 4th XV under the captaincy of
his son, Peter. He said that he could keep on playing but could
not be bossed around by his son!
In rugby there are those that are characters and those that are
legends. There are few that are both. Peter was one of those.
Ten years ago, he enthralled the HPA Lunch with tales of the
shenanigans he got up to. One that stays in the memory was of
his Austin A7 that was like the milkman’s horse; knew its way
home. After a game, Peter was poured into the car at Twickenham
and the next thing he remembered was waking up the following
morning in the car outside his home in Stroud. Even a month ago
at Micky Steele-Bodger’s wake, he was running his daughter and
grand-daughter ragged as he kept disappearing all round the East
India Club. Peter was of the generation that played hard both on
and off the field. He died wearing his club tie and will be
sorely missed.
Our thoughts are with his children, grandchildren and the rest
of his family.
[attachment deleted by admin]
#Post#: 31484--------------------------------------------------
Re: Charles 'Peter' Garfield Woodruff MBE 1920-2019
DIR By: Chipstead Quin
Date: November 14, 2019, 7:35 am
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Thanks for the update SQ , characters like Mr Woodruff are the
Foundation of our game and represent a true Corinthian spirit
that hopefully will be carried forward . RIP.
#Post#: 31492--------------------------------------------------
Re: Charles 'Peter' Garfield Woodruff MBE 1920-2019
DIR By: InsertQuinsPunHere
Date: November 14, 2019, 11:11 am
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Thank you for sharing. A nice obituary. RIP
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