John Richard Woodley was born in 1866 in Lewisham, South East London. He is recorded as being a Bank Accountant in 1891 before qualifying and becoming an Incorporated Accountant by 1895. He was in business with Sidney Kent, twelve years his junior, but someone who must have passed the newly created examinations at an early age. A partnership between John Woodley and Sidney Herbert Kent is recorded as being dissolved in October 1900. Some time during or immediately after the first world war John Woodley came together with a new partner, William Henry Morgan. This eventually became the firm John R Woodley, Morgan and Co. by 1927.
In the 1921 census John Woodley lists his place of work as 39 Wood Street London EC2. This matches the same work address in the same census for William Morgan. John Woodley would appear to be living separately from his wife. His only son Kenneth Broughton Woodley had served in and survived the First World War.
John Woodley is listed in the London Gazette multiple times as liquidator of many small businesses – many of which fit the pattern of the first client list we have for William Morgan’s clients, dated 1931.
John Woodley died on 1 Jun 1938, just two months before his wife, Maud. The executor of his will was Aleida Maria Carmelia van Diggelen (sic) suggesting perhaps the marital estrangement was even deeper than that of his partner, William Henry Morgan who died in 1947
Sources and Notes
- London Gazette (multiple entries)
- The Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors was formed in 1885 and introduced an examination system shortly after that date.
- Sidney Kent’s father, William Kent, worked for a German Fabric Company, quite possibly the source of a number of his Woodley, Kent and Co’s clients.