
The Woolgars 1964
Family
Jack was a romantic. A story teller who began to believe some of the stories that had little or no evidence to support them. One was that he could trace his acting forebears back the Shakespeare. This was based on a Victorian print of an actress called Sarah Jane Woolgar of the Adelphi Theatre, London that he found in a shop. He had no evidence of being related to her other than the name [there has since been a lot of research on Woolgars done and I can see no link ...yet] and as for Shakespeare... this I recall was based on the fact some chain of relatives had been nicknamed Shaky and called William which gave a direct line to the bard in his head... it’s a nice thought that Bill was a family member!
As mentioned earlier Jack was the eldest of three kids and I think wanted to escape his family as soon as he could, he was quite a free spirit and wanted to 'better' himself which he felt he did through education. His father died in 1957 and his mother eventually came to live with us before she died. I was very young at the time but recall his relationship with his mother was quite stormy, which may have been due to his propensity for whiskey and her for Mackeson and if that ran out, his whiskey!
He married first in 1940 to Doris Whatmore who he always claimed had entrapped him into marriage by saying she was pregnant, there was no child and they separated and divorced.
Meeting and then marrying Liz in 1949 was it seemed a perfect match, though from very different backgrounds and quite opposite in character they both had a love of the theatre and as they came along their kids. Harvey 1951, Christopher 1953, Sarah 1956 and Timothy 1960.
Harvey never really went for the theatrical life and took another family route, from mum's side, of seafaring, joining the merchant navy as a navigator which Jack liked as he had gone to sea too. Harvey emigrated to New Zealand in 1972.
Chris dipped into acting with an episode of Yorkshire TV’s Gazette in the late 60s and therefore gets an entry on IMDb.com but didn't go off to tread boards but build them. He was a major but un-sung contributor to the creation of The Theatre in Chipping Norton and ASM in the first Chippy panto. Sadly Chris died in 2024.
Sarah was also in the Harvey mould and finished her theatre career with an outstanding Mary in the school nativity.
Tim. Well I had a dabble at acting. Baby Dragon in that first Chippy panto. Clayhanger an ATV production period drama and then a radio play The Sectret Garden. That was it. I paid too much attention to dad’s advice of 'get another string to your bow'. But have to confess to being very pleased when my daughter took to acting entirely on her own volition. She has since stopped but performs as a DJ. And I rediscovered it all in a good village non professional theatre way. Have a look at

Harvey, Chris and Jack at Fernside Avenue