Thomas Borries Ralph Woodrooffe (24 January 1899 – 25 March 1978) was a British naval officer, broadcaster and writer. He was born in Adelaide, Cape Province, South Africa to George Borries Woodrooffe (1868-1923) and Elizabeth McFarlan "Bessie" Jameson (1872?-1941). He joined the Royal Navy in 1917 and served on HMS ''Resolution'' during the last year of World War I. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and left the Navy in 1933. After his retirement he became a commentator for BBC Radio. He was one of its main commentators during the 1930s, covering amongst many other events the opening ceremony of the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

and

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...

's return from Munich in 1938. HMS Nelson off Spithead for the Fleet Review

In 1937, he commentated on the Coronation Review of the Fleet at Spithead from his old ship the

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

. He had met some of his former colleagues before the broadcast for a drink, and was inebriated while giving his commentary. He repeatedly said "the fleet's lit up", and at one point he told listeners "I'm sorry, I was telling some people to shut up talking." His incoherence was such that he was taken off air after a few minutes and suspended for a week by BBC Director-General

Sir John Reith John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, (; 20 July 1889 – 16 June 1971), was a British broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he was employed by th ...

. The BBC later said that he was "

tired and emotional The phrase "tired and emotional" is a chiefly British euphemism for alcohol intoxication. It was popularised by the British satirical magazine ''Private Eye'' in 1967 after being used in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of Labour c ...

". A year later his phrase "the fleet's lit up" was used as the title of a musical comedy, and in 1940

Hubert Gregg Hubert Robert Harry Gregg (19 July 1914 – 29 March 2004) was a British broadcaster, writer and actor. In his later years, he was known for the BBC Radio 2 "oldies" shows ''A Square Deal'' and ''Thanks for the Memory''. He was also a novelist, ...

wrote the song "I'm gonna get lit up when the lights go up in London." Parts of Woodrooffe's commentary were used by the British rock band Public Service Broadcasting in their track ''Lit Up''. Woodrooffe continued to work for the BBC, and in 1938 he was the main commentator at the FA Cup Final between

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

and Huddersfield Town, the first to be televised. After 29 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

it was still 0-0 and Woodrooffe said "If there's a goal scored now, I'll eat my hat." Seconds later Preston was awarded a penalty from which George Mutch scored. Woodrooffe kept his promise, appearing on the BBC television programme '' Picture Page'' the following week and eating a hat shaped cake. Woodrooffe rejoined the Admiralty in September 1939. In 1940, he served briefly as Commanding Officer of the light cruiser HMS ''Coventry''. He spent the rest of World War II in the Press Division of the Admiralty. Woodrooffe also wrote books on naval history, including ''River of Golden Sand'' (1936), ''Best Stories of the Navy'' (1941) and ''Vantage at Sea: England's Emergence as An Oceanic Power'' (1958). He married Ida Helen Duncan (1900-1981) in 1927. He died in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

at the age of 79.

References

External links

BBC Archive recording of the Spithead broadcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodrooffe, Thomas 1899 births 1978 deaths British radio personalities British writers Royal Navy officers BBC people