John Woollett

Major-General John Castle Woollett (5 November 1915 – 30 May 2007) was a British Army officer. He joined the Royal Engineers in 1935 and studied for a degree in mechanical sciences at St John's College, Cambridge. Woollett joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in September 1939, at the start of the Second World War. After the BEF was evacuated to the United Kingdom in 1940 he volunteered for commando service. Woollett commanded the demolition engineers in Operation Archery, a 1941 raid on Vågsøy in German-occupied Norway. He commanded 16 Field Squadron (later 16 Assault Squadron), an armoured engineer unit, from 1942. With the 79th Armoured Division he took part in the North-West Europe campaign of 1944–45, assisting with river crossings and demolition of German strongholds, and won the Military Cross.

After the war Woollett attended the Staff College, Camberley, and was sent to Burma to help prepare their armed forces for independence. He returned to the United Kingdom to command 51 Port Squadron and instruct at the Staff College. He was appointed to command 28 Field Engineer Regiment in 1954 in the aftermath of the Korean War. From 1956 Woollett led the engineering aspects of the Operation Grapple thermonuclear tests. He afterwards held staff roles with the NATO Northern Army Group and the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Woollett commanded the Transportation Training Centre from 1964 and from 1967 to his retirement in 1970 was chief engineer to the BAOR. In retirement Woollett was a principal planning inspector for the Department of the Environment. He also remained involved with the Royal Engineers as their colonel commandant (1974–78), as president of the Institution of Royal Engineers (1974–79) and skipper of vessels for the Royal Engineers' Yacht Club.

Early life and career John Castle Woollett was born in Streatham, County of London, on 5 November 1915. He attended the Roman Catholic St Benedict's School, Ealing, before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a gentleman cadet. Woollett was commissioned from the academy as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 29 August 1935. He afterwards read mechanical sciences at St John's College, Cambridge, and while there rowed at the Henley Royal Regatta.

Second World War

Woollett was deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force at the start of the Second World War. Serving with 23 Field Company as part of the 1st Infantry Division he was evacuated from Dunkirk in May/June 1940. Woollett and his unit assisted in the capture of Le Havre in September 1944 and the clearing of the Scheldt Estuary in October/November.

Woollett returned to England to command 51 Port Squadron and afterwards served as an instructor at the Staff College in Camberley. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 9 June 1955 Birthday Honours for his service in Korea, by this time he held the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. Woollett was appointed to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1955 and to the substantive rank on 1 November 1956.

In 1956 Woollett was appointed chief engineer, with the temporary rank of Colonel, for the Operation Grapple thermonuclear tests held on Christmas Island. He commanded the centre during its conversion into the Army School of Transport and transfer from the Royal Engineers to the Royal Corps of Transport in 1965. Woollett left the position on 9 September 1970 and retired from the army on 3 December.

In retirement Woollett worked as a principal planning inspector for the Department of the Environment, holding the post from 1971 until 1987. Between 1974 and 1979 he was president of the Institution of Royal Engineers. Woollett also skippered Royal Engineers' Yacht Club vessels in numerous races including two Fastnet Races.