Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: WOODLEY, Frederick George Richard, Sir

Birth Date: 1 Sep 1899

Death Date: 6 Oct 1971 Checkendon, Oxon.

First Date: 1935

Profession: manager of Whiteaway Laidlaw; mayor of Nairobi

Area: Mombasa, Nairobi

Married: 1. 1929 Bessie Maud Hind b. 1888 Eccles, d.1961, nurse 2. Joyce Mary Forrest b. 10 May 1926

Book Reference: Coast Causerie, Debrett, Foster, Nation, Who's Who

General Information:

Manager of Whiteway Laidlaws at Mombasa. At the time of the Voi Gold Rush in 1935 remembers selling every frying pan in the store! Shops and businesses closed as the locals drove to Voi.
Debrett - is a Merchant; has been a Member of Nairobi City Council since 1944, and an Alderman since 1948 (Mayor 1947-50, Charter Mayor 1950)
Foster - Mayor of Nairobi 1949
Nation - 1-Mar-08 - Sir Frederick George Richard Woodley is best remembered as a Nairobi mayor for his passion for sports and for the part he played to promote football in particular. He rarely missed a football match at the African Stadium, later renamed City Stadium, or at the Nairobi Railways Club where several popular British stars such as Sir Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney played when they visited the country. He served as Nairobi mayor from the mid-1940s to 1950. Woodley was at one time president of the Football Association of Kenya (FA) while former Kenya Cricket Association chairman Bashir Mauladad was vice president. It also had two indigenous committee members: John Kasyoka and Senior Chief Musa Nyandusi, former minister Simeon Nyachae's father.
Woodley's interest in football influenced the development of Kibera football ground which was later named after him. Woodley's love for sports was not confined to soccer alone as a tennis court was also developed within the precincts of Kibera Olympic Social Hall. It is the only community centre in Nairobi with such a facility, tennis being a rich man's game. Old timers may recall that Woodley used to have a shoe shop near where Nation Centre now stands. A close friend of Woodley's recalls that he spent more time out of his shop than inside. He would sneak out and quietly go to the stadium to enjoy a game of soccer in the afternoon. Those days, anyone who wanted to watch a football match could only do so at the stadium as soccer on television was rare. Stadiums used to be filled to capacity as there were fewer means of entertainment than today.
Findagrave - buried in Checkendon churchyard

Back to search results