Branch of Service

Air Force

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Discharge

28/08/1946

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Bill'

Date of Birth

12/12/1887

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Mugga Way, Red Hill ACT

School(s) Attended

Queanbeyan Public School

Occupation

Auctioneer

Next of Kin

Elsie Barton Woodger (wife), Mugga Way, Red Hill ACT

Service Number

4857

Final Rank

Flying Officer

Final Unit

No.43 Squadron, Air Training Corps

Woodger started his working life in Queanbeyan with Thomas P. Maxwell, stock and station agents. He moved to Sydney in 1910 joining the pastoral firm Warden Harry Graves Ltd. He married Elsie Barton Dawkins, a secretary with the same firm, in 1913. He enlisted on 30 October 1916 and served in World War 1 with the 4th Battalion in France, finishing the war with the rank of lieutenant.

In 1920 following his return, he formed with Harry Calthorpe and his elder brother Tom Woodger the firm of Woodgers & Calthorpe. This company had offices in Queanbeyan and from 1925 in Canberra. Bill Woodger ran the Canberra office and represented the company in the first auction of business and private leases in the capital. He also built the first private house in Mugga Way and played a leading part in the establishment of Canberra both through business and other activities.

During World War 2 he was the commander of No.43 Squadron, Air Training Corps, chairman of the local recruiting committee and a member of bodies controlling land sales and petrol distribution. He was president of the Canberra City sub-branch of the Returned Sailors', Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia.

In 1959 Woodgers and Calthorpe merged with L.J. Hookers and Woodger was appointed Chairman of both companies. He retired in 1964, moving to Sydney. William Woodger died in Sydney on 25 January 1979.

Patricia Clarke, 'Woodger, William George (1887 - 1979)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002 (pp 581-582)
Woodger family documents and photographs
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php