Ajax Veterans Street Dedication: Woodhouse Crescent

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Street Name: Woodhouse Crescent
Name of Veteran: Charles Henry Lawrence Woodhouse July 9, 1893- Sept. 23, 1978
Rank: Captain
Ship Served: HMS Ajax
Date of Service on Ship: October 9, 1937 to April 22, 1940
Year of Visit/Dedication: May 2018
Veteran or Family Visit: Caroline Tibbs, granddaughter
Veteran of the Battle of the River Plate: Yes
Died at Battle: No

Sir Charles Henry Lawrence Woodhouse was born on July 9, 1893 in Nottinghamshire, England to parents Arthur Powys Woodhouse and Frances D'oyley Edmonstone. He joined the Royal Navy on May 15, 1906 and was educated at the colleges Osborne and Dartmouth. Charles served in World War One and specialized in gunnery. By 1934 he was made Captain and in 1935 he was appointed Assistant Director of Naval Equipment at the Admiralty.
Woodhouse captained HMS Ajax in the famous Battle of the River Plate on December 13, 1939. For his part in the action he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Bath. The Order of the Bath is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry. In October 1940 he became Director of the Local Division at the Admiralty and in April 1942 he assumed command of HMS Howe. In March 1944 he went on to be Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty.
After World War Two Captain Woodhouse became Second-in-Command of the Carrier Fleet and in 1948 he was made Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station. He retired from the service in 1950 and was promoted to Admiral on the Retired List in 1952. He died on September 23, 1978 at the age of eighty five.

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