JOHN WOOLDRIDGE
John Wooldridge was born in Yokohoma,
Japan on July 18, 1919. (John Huntley’s
book on British film music incorrectly
claims that he was born in Barnstaple
in 1911.) He was educated at St. Paul’s
School, London. His first job was as
secretary to a boys’ preparatory school
in Norfolk. All his spare time was spent
flying with the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve
and studying music under Lukno, a Swedish-Finn
and disciple of Sibelius, then resident
in England.
On April 30, 1938 Wooldridge
transferred to the regular Air Force
as a Sergeant Pilot. To get round the
age of admission rule he claimed that
he was born in 1917. He took part in
the first British air raid of the war
on Kiel on 4 September 1939 and having
brought his damaged aircraft home safely
was awarded the D.F.M. Commissioned
in August, 1940, he rapidly rose to
the rank of Flight Commander and in
that capacity, flew Lancasters as a
Flight Lieutenant. In the middle of
1942, for his part in the 1,000 bomber
raid on Cologne he was awarded the D.F.C.
When, in early 1943, defying the appalling
attrition statistics, he completed the
80th of his ultimate total
of 97 successful missions he received
the Bar to his D.F.C. By this time he
was a Wing Commander and O.C. of a low
level Mosquito Bomber squadron. Wooldridge
was often filmed in documentaries as
a representative of the Royal Air Force
and became adjutant to Guy Gibson’s
617 Squadron, The Dam Busters. Bombing
landing barges at Calais for three nights
successively early in 1940, he was wounded
when an A.A. shell burst in the cockpit
of his aeroplane and this injury eventually
caused him to be invalided out of the
R.A.F. in October 1945, when he held
the post of Chief Flying Instructor.
After being demobbed he became even
more active as a composer and author;
his book LOW ATTACK (1944; reprinted
1993) describing his low level bombing
exploits.
On leaving the RAF
after the war, Wooldridge devoted himself
chiefly to the composition of film music
where Dr Edward Waters of the Library
of Congress described that he invariably
reflected skilled and resourceful musicianship
whilst meeting the needs of this medium.
He was much associated with films by
John and Roy Boulting (the Boulting
Brothers). He was put under contract
to the Boultings to write music for
Fame Is The Spur and The
Guinea Pig starring a very young
Richard Attenborough. As was common
at the time, Wooldridge made a suite
from his film music for Fame Is The
Spur; this was played by
the Hallé conducted by Barbirolli.
He scored the films Blackmailed (1950),
Conspirator (1950) Woman in
Question (1950), Angels One Five
(1954), The Last Man to Hang
(1956), Count Five and Die (1958)
with a harmonica solo by Tommy Reilly
and RX Murder (1958). Later,
for M.G.M., he wrote the music for Edward
My Son (1949) which was conducted
by Sir Malcolm Sargent. He wrote both
music and script for the definitive
film about Bomber Command Appointment
In London (1952) and he also wrote
the squadron song for this film. Starring
Dirk Bogarde and Dinah Sheridan this
film gave Dirk Bogarde his first ‘non-spiv’
role.
Incidental music for
the theatre also attracted him. The
Michael Redgrave / Michael Benthall
production of The Tempest at
The Memorial Theatre, Stratford used
his music. He also provided incidental
music for productions at The Open Air
Theatre, Regent’s Park, directed by
Robert Atkins. Not content with writing
music he was active as an author: film
scripts (Appointment In London; The
Man Who Hated War; The Pride Of Spenwiddy;
Sandric Is Dead) and plays (Three
Steps To Heaven - first performed
in London (1955) and Life With The
Girls first performed in London
(1956).
During the first three
years of the war, and in between flying,
he wrote his first and most notable
musical work — a symphonic poem The
Constellations (1944) working alternately
on borrowed pianos and the local padre’s
organ. Much of this was sketched during
the long bombing missions over occupied
mainland Europe. Wooldridge went to
America to acquaint the U.S. Service
Chiefs of British plans for PLUTO and
FIDO insofar as they affected the allied
Air Forces. He took with him the score
of The Constellations and this
work was premiered by the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodzinski
(1894 – 1958). Its UK premiere was given
by John Barbirolli and the Hallé
Orchestra. In November 1944, Wooldridge
returned by invitation and with special
permission from the R.A.F. to attend
several British concerts.
Rodzinski had made
a bargain with Wooldridge during his
first visit to New York when he had
conducted The Constellations.
He told Wooldridge that if he shot down
more than five enemy planes during the
coming six months he would premiere
another Wooldridge work with the NYPO.
Wooldridge more than met this quota
and true to his word Rodzinski premiered
A Solemn Hymn To Victory in a
concert alongside Walton’s Belshazzar’s
Feast and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s
Symphony No. 5. This orchestral
piece, performed four times during its
early history, is "Dedicated to
my comrades. Composed on the Eve of
The Invasion. June 1944." Wooldridge’s
presence at the premiere was no mean
feat in those wartime days (see p. 262
of Halina Rodzinski’s Our Two Lives,
Scribner, 1976). Homeward bound from
his first visit, and flying a Mosquito,
Wooldridge broke the Atlantic world
speed record.
His Symphonic Suite
The Elizabethans was dedicated
to Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II.
It was completed on April 14,
1953 and the manuscript score bears
the inscription: "By one who having
for a long time imagined himself an
Elizabethan, now finds himself one in
his own right." Following its Sydney
premiere, it received a distinguished
USA premiere by Leopold Stokowski and
The Houston Symphony Orchestra (1960).
Wooldridge’s celebrity as a bomber pilot
and a composer secured for him a very
high profile in the USA.
There are also the
Largo for Orchestra, Prelude
For An Unwritten Tragedy Orchestral
Suite and the Prelude for a Great
Occasion also known as Music
for a Great Occasion for organ and
orchestra and an English Rhapsody, Song
of the Summer Hills, dedicated to
the Boyd Neel String Orchestra.
His music includes
the Slow March For The Royal Air
Force which was played at the unveiling
and dedication of The Royal Air Force
Memorial, Runnymede and also at the
funerals of Air Marshal Sir John Lessor
and Sir Winston Churchill.
Famous soloists showed
practical interest and commitment to
his music. He wrote an Oboe Concerto
for Leon Goossens who played this at
The Orangery, Hampton Court. Later it
was recorded in Holland where it was
also performed by the Concertgebouw.
His Cello Concerto was written for Maurice
Eisenburg.
His The Saga Of
The Ships was performed by the Sheffield
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Herman Lindans. This work, for narrator
and orchestra, was written for his wife
Margaretta Scott (1912 –
2005) who gave the first performance.
This work is "Dedicated with his
permission to the Right Honourable Winston
Churchill – in honour of his distinguished
associations with the men of the sea."
Wooldridge struck a
commanding and remarkable figure at
6 foot tall, weighing 150 pounds, with
brown hair and blue eyes and sporting
a ‘Bomber Command’ moustache. There
was nothing of the affected artistes
in him; indeed he described himself
as "an ordinary chap". His
musical activities also included work
as an orchestral conductor especially
with the Philharmonia Orchestra. He
married the actress Margaretta Scott
in 1944 and they became the parents
of Susan and Hugh Wooldridge. He died
on October 27, 1958 in a car accident.
Hugh Wooldridge
LOW ATTACK (John Wooldridge):
Crécy Books Ltd. 1993 (ISBN 0
947554 31 9)
ENEMY COAST AHEAD (Guy
Gibson): Michael Joseph. London 1946
BOMBER BARONS (Chas
Bowyer): William Kimber England 1987
MOSQUITO THUNDER
– No. 105 Squadron RAF at War 1941-5
(Stuart Scott)
