Herbert Charles Woodcock

Who was Herbert Charles Woodcock?

Colonel Herbert Charles Woodcock was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician.

The son of Charles Woodcock of Smethwick and his wife Annie née Robertson of Bristol, he entered business and local politics in the latter city. He was an alderman on Bristol City Council for many years and a member of the Bristol Stock Exchange from 1898. He was a director of a number of public companies including the Metropolitan Cinema Investment Corporation Limited and the British Benzol and Coal Distillation Limited.

Woodcock held a commission in the Volunteer Force and its successor the Territorial Force, and in 1911 became commanding officer of the 6th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment. With the outbreak of war in 1914 he mobilised with the battalion, serving on the Western Front and in Italy.

Woodcock was elected at the 1922 general election as the Member of Parliament for Thornbury division of Gloucestershire, defeating the sitting Liberal MP Athelstan Rendall by a majority only 104 votes. However, he lost the seat to Rendall at the next election, in 1923.

Woodcock returned to Parliament a year later, when he was elected at the 1924 general election as MP for the Everton division of Liverpool. He held that seat until the 1929 general election, which he did not contest.