Background
Wooldridge was born in Yokohama, Japan and was educated at Street Paul"s School, London.
Wooldridge was born in Yokohama, Japan and was educated at Street Paul"s School, London.
A talented music composer and academic, he studied music under Sibelius and was a friend and contemporary of William Walton.
He joined the Royal Air Force as a Sergeant pilot in 1938. Affectionately known as "Dim", he served with 207 Sqn based at Royal Air Force Bottesford flying Avro Manchesters. He then served with Number.
106 Squadron Royal Air Force as one of Guy Gibson"s Flight Commanders, before being appointed commanding officer of Number.
105 Squadron Royal Air Force in March 1943, which specialised in low level precision daylight bombing using de Havilland Mosquito aircraft. He wrote a book, Low Attack about these operations in 1944.
In May 1944 while in America he volunteered to ferry one of the first Canadian-built Mosquitoes across the Atlantic to Britain, and accompanied by F/O C. J. Brown as Navigator, set a new record for the Atlantic crossing from Goose Bay, Labrador to the United Kingdom, of 5hrs, 46 minutes. Before this the record for the Labrador-Britain route had been held by a BOAC Liberator at 7hrs 56 minutes.
He was aeronautical adviser to the Petroleum Warfare Department during the development of the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) fog dispersal system.
Wooldridge put this war time experience to good use when he contributed the score, as well as co-writing the screenplay to the 1953 Dirk Bogarde film Appointment in London. RX for Murder - (1958) - (United States title: Prescription for Murder)
Soapbox Derby - (1958)
Count Five and Die - (1958)
The Last Manitoba to Hang? - (1956)
Appointment in London - (1952)
Crow Hollow - (1952) - (uncredited)
Blackmailed - (1951)
Torment - (1950) - (United States title: Paper Gallows)
The Woman in Question - (1950) - (United States title: Five Angles on Murder)
Conspirator - (1949)
Edward, My Son - (1949)
A Journey for Jeremy - (1949)
The Guinea Pig - (1948) - (United States title: The Outsider)
Fame is the Spur - (1947).
During he was a member of Royal Air Force Bomber Command and flew a total of ninety-seven operational bombing sorties.