Woollcombe was born in Devon, the eldest son of Rev. Louis Woollcombe, Rector of Petrockstowe, and Augusta Rundell Brown.[3] He was educated at Marlborough College. After beginning a career as an accountant, he decided to join the military and in 1876 entered Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was a member of the football teams at Marlborough and Sandhurst.[2]
He was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for Musketry in Bengal from 1890 and then Brigade Major for the Chitral Relief Force in Buram in 1895.[7] He then served on the North West Frontier in India becoming Assistant Adjutant General of the Mohmand Field Force in 1897.[7] He then took part in the Tirah expedition from 1897 to 1898 and then became Assistant Adjutant General in India in 1899.[7]
He served in the Second Boer War in South Africa and then became Assistant Adjutant General for Musketry in India between 1901 and 1906.[7]
In September 1919, it was announced that he had been appointed Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania by the King of Romania "for distinguished services rendered during the course of the campaign" (i.e the First World War).[14]
Personal life
In 1886, he married Agnes Meade Murray, youngest daughter of General Sir John Irvine Murray. They had two sons, Malcolm Louis and 2nd Lt. Charles Stephenson, and a daughter, Joan. The younger son was killed in action while serving with his father's regiment, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, at the Battle of La Bassée on 12 October 1914.[2]
^ Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 3a: New Army Divisions (9–26), London: HM Stationery Office, 1938/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-41-X, p. 19.
^Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 4: The Army Council, GHQs, Armies, and Corps 1914–1918, London: HM Stationery Office, 1944/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-43-6, pp. 153, 287–8.