Charles Thomas Wooldridge

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Charles Thomas Wooldridge (CIR 1866 - July 7, 1896) was a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, a regiment of the British Army. He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen ^[1], earlier that year at Clewer, near Windsor. He was executed at Reading Gaol, aged 30. ^{[2] [3]}

Trooper Wooldridge's death was immortalised in Oscar Wilde's moving poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wilde was a fellow inmate at Reading Gaol at the time, and had seen Wooldridge on several occasions. The ballad is dedicated to Wooldridge by his initials CTW.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN qtr 1896 Wooldridge, Laura Ellen aged 23 Windsor 2c 241
2. ^ And I, May I Say Nothing?. the OSScholars. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
3. ^ GRO Register of Deaths: SEP qtr 1896 Wooldridge, Charles Thomas aged 30 Reading 2c 210
4. ^ "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". Oscar Wilde (1897).