Danish WW2 Pilots

Geoffrey Bertram Woolrych

(1924 - 2005)

Sgt G. B. Woolrych was born and raised in Copenhagen, but a British national. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and served as aircrew.

Geoffrey Bertram Woolrych was born on 26 May 1924 in Copenhagen, the son of merchant Anthony Claude Woolrych and Gurli Marika Mirror Woolrych (née Möller).[1] Woolrych’s father, a British national, had served in France in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War and had been awarded a Military Cross.[2] His mother was born in Malmø, Sweden,[3] but had been naturalised as British by the marriage to his father in Copenhagen in 1922.[4]

The family remained in Denmark

Anthony Claude Woolrych was a prominent figure in the Anglican Church congregation in Copenhagen before the war. He became a senior sidesman in the 1930s and was appointed lay reader and thereby a member of the Church Committee in 1938.

St Alban's Church in Copenhagen. Woolrych's father was a central figure in the congregation during the German occupation of Denmark (Danish National Museum).
St Alban's Church in Copenhagen. Woolrych's father was a central figure in the congregation during the German occupation of Denmark (Danish National Museum).

In April 1940 German forces occupied Denmark and the British Legation in Copenhagen including the chaplain of the St Alban Church left the country.[5] A. C. Woolrych was one of a total of 157 individuals who were naturalised as Danish subjects by law of 2 August 1940 in order to protect them from harassment, interntment etc. during the occupation.[6]The family remained in Denmark for the duration of the occupation.

Royal Air Force aircrew

Meanwhile, Woolrych had left Denmark for the United Kingdom. The information available does not provide further details on when and for what purpose he left Denmark, but it seems likely that he was send to England to study. He had left Denmark at the time of the 1940 census of Denmark, in November 1940.[7]

p>Woolrych volunteered for the Royal Air Force in Oxford in late 1942 (1850783). Details of his service is not known at this point. He was trainee as aircrew and promoted to Sergeant before the end of the war.[8]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Sankt Albans Kirke.

[2] NAA: B2455, WOOLRYCH A C. He served in the 53rd Battalion, 8th Reinforcement, embarking from Sydney on HMAT A29 Suevic on 11 November 1916.

[3] Ancestry: Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1859-1947.

[4] DNA: Parish register, Sankt Albans Kirke.

[5] St. Alban’s personaleties. Anhthony Claude Woolrych (1890-1959), St. Alban’s Church Newsletter, April 2013, p. 18-19.

[6] Forslag til Lov om Indfødsrets Meddelelse, Rigsdagstidende, Ordentlig samling 1939-40, Tillæg A, column 5065-5108.

[7] DNA: 1940 Census of Denmark.

[8] In a family photo taken in 1945 Woolrych is wearing the wing of a navigator, an air gunner or air bomber and the rank insignia of a sergeant.