Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John “Jack” Woodhouse was born in Leederville, WA on the 11th February 1922, the youngest in a family of six children. His father, Joseph George Woodhouse, died just two months after Jack was born, a victim of the flu epidemic sweeping through Australia at the end of the First World War; Ethel, his wife, was left to raise the family. Jack was to lose his two oldest siblings, a brother and sister, 16 years later in 1938 to tuberculosis, a leading cause of death at the time, compounded by the economic hardships caused by the Great Depression.  Jack attended the Christian Brothers College in Perth; he left school at 14 yrs. and served an apprenticeship as a plasterer. He was an athlete and accomplished footballer.

Jack enlisted in the Australian army in January 1942, aged 19 years. Jack’s family was a family of service. His father, Joseph, was a police officer, Joseph was posthumously awarded the Western Australia Police Service Medal in 2005. His brother George Gerard Woodhouse, six years his senior, enlisted in July 1938, aged 21 yrs.; this was to lead to a lifetime of service in the Australian Army. In WW2 George was assigned to the Middle East and South West Pacific Area. He was a decorated soldier who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  His sister Olive’s son, John Kennedy, would go on to serve in the WA police from 1964 until 1998, retiring in the rank of Inspector.

The many tributes from family, friends and colleagues that followed the news of Jack’s death in action, including a tribute from members of the West Perth Football club, remember Jack fondly and proudly as a gentleman, a person of integrity and loyalty, a dear friend and a loving family member.