User:Harrias/George Woodhouse

George Edward Sealy Woodhouse DL (15 February 1924 – 19 January 1988) had two careers: one as a cricketer for Somerset and Dorset, the second as the chairman from 1962 to his death of the family brewing company Hall and Woodhouse. As a cricketer, he was known as George Woodhouse; as a businessman, he was known as Edward Woodhouse.

Early life
George Edward Sealy Woodhouse was born on 15 February 1924 in Blandford, Dorset, the eldest son of Harold Sealy Woodhouse and Ruth (née Strange). The Woodhouse family owned the Hall & Woodhouse brewery, which ran over 100 pubs in the 1930s; George's father Harold had been a director of the business since 1914, and acted as company secretary for 22 years. Harold also served as an officer in the Dorsetshire Regiment of the British Army. George Edward attended first Durlston Court Preparatory School in Swanage, and then Marlborough College, where he captained both the cricket and rugby teams. Playing cricket for Marlborough against Wellington College, Woodhouse scored a century during a first-wicket partnership of 184, which stood at the time as a school record. He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for a year before joining the Coldstream Guards to serve in the Second World War.

Cricket career
Woodhouse was a right-handed middle-order batsman, a very occasional medium-pace bowler and, once in his first-class career, a wicketkeeper. He played a couple of times for Somerset in 1946, and then fairly regularly in both 1947 and 1948, winning his county cap in 1947 after an innings of 109 against Leicestershire which proved to be his only first-class century.

In 1948, Somerset struggled to find a full-time captain, and Woodhouse officially shared the job with Mandy Mitchell-Innes and Jake Seamer, though at least two other players captained the side for occasional matches. In 1949, Woodhouse took over the captaincy full-time and played his only full season of cricket: he made 849 runs, though his highest score was only 59, at an average just below 20 runs an innings. He led the team to equal ninth in the County Championship table, and only three matches all season were drawn. But at the end of the season he stepped down to go into the family business, and he played only a few more times in first-class cricket, finally finishing in 1953.

Instead, he became a fairly regular player in Minor Counties cricket for Dorset, not retiring from second-class cricket until 1964.

Business career
Hall and Woodhouse is a family owned brewery in Blandford Forum, and Edward Woodhouse was the fourth generation of his family to become chairman when he took over in 1962. His own sons David and Anthony are now in charge of the company, which has expanded significantly in the past 25 years.

Woodhouse was also a Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Dorset.

He died suddenly from a heart attack.