Owen Woodhouse

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Sir Owen Woodhouse, 2011

Sir Arthur Owen Woodhouse ONZ KBE DSC (born July 18, 1916 in Napier , New Zealand , † April 15, 2014 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand officer and lawyer who was the commander of motor torpedo boats (MTB) of the Royal Navy during the Second World War and later president of the Court of Appeal . As chairman of a Royal Commission of accident compensations (Royal Commission on Accident Compensation) from 1966 to 1967, he also created a still valid and internationally as an important innovation Considered polluter independent accident compensation method (Accident Compensation) .

Life

Studied and commanded motor torpedo boats in World War II

Woodhouse completed after visiting the Napier Boys' High School in Napier studying law at the University of Auckland .

In August 1944, Woodhouse commander of the Motor Torpedo boat MTB 85 that the in was Italian Ancona stationed 24th MTB Flotilla belonged, and was associated with the conduct of covert operations before the peninsula Istria commissioned. In a first operation he tried on September 5, 1944 to take a patrol of the Special Boat Service (SBS), which should return from a guerrilla operation from Yugoslavia . After the MTB was discovered by a newly established German radar station , it came under heavy artillery fire from coastal batteries , but Woodhouse escaped through a zigzag course. Using Bengali fire , he managed to distract the enemy in order to complete his mission to take up the SBS patrol. At the end of September 1944, MTB 85 put together MTB 273 again across the Adriatic Sea in order to successfully land SBS units on Vignole , a small island in the Venice lagoon .

The last mission almost ended in disaster: Accompanied by the MTB 97, commanded by his friend Lieutenant Raymond "Tonk" Tonkin, his boat with two politicians and an SBS team in Bari for Albania , but had to turn back due to bad weather. In a second attempt two days later, MTB 85 sustained engine damage after the engine room got a leak. This resulted in a short circuit in the electrical system, so that the boat could only move forward and the bilge water pumps also failed. After an emerging storm, Tonkin tried to tow the ship, which failed six times in stormy seas and was finally given up completely. Woodhouse, along with his exhausted and seasick crew and passengers, tried unsuccessfully to dump oil overboard to calm the swell. Despite the dangerous swell, he did not give up his ship, but had a temporary sail made on the short mast of the ship with a bale of canvas in order to continue sailing. This enabled him to sail away from the Albanian coast at a speed of one to two knots . In the following 24 hours he made slow progress before the motor torpedo boat was sighted by the corvette HMS Saxifrage (K04) that was towing her to Brindisi .

In January 1945 Woodhouse, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his bravery in the Adriatic Sea in 1944 , became the commander of the US- built MTB 410, which was part of the newly formed 28th MTB flotilla. In the last weeks of the war, this flotilla took part in eleven attacks on German ship formations, with no losses whatsoever. The attacks included the last involvement of motor torpedo boats in World War II on April 12 and 13, 1945, when the flotilla hit five of its six torpedoes. At the end of the war he was briefly Vice-Naval Attaché at the British Embassy in Belgrade .

Attorney, Judge and President of the Court of Appeal

Upon his return to New Zealand, Woodhouse began practicing as an attorney with the Lusk Willis & Sproule law firm in Napier, and was a partner in that firm between 1946 and 1961. In addition, he was between 1953 and 1961 as a representative of the Crown Prosecutor in criminal proceedings (Crown Prosecutor) in his native Napier.

In 1961 he became a judge at the Supreme Court , New Zealand's Supreme Court, and served there until 1973. During this time, from 1966 to 1967, he was chairman of a Royal Commission on Accident Compensation , which in its final report named after him ( Woodhouse Report) demanded a causer-independent accident compensation procedure that is still valid today and internationally regarded as an important innovation.

In 1973 he was appointed judge on the Court of Appeal, New Zealand's court of appeal. In 1974 Woodhouse was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree and since then has had the suffix "Sir". In 1974 he also became a Privy Counselor and a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council . Most recently, he was the successor to Clifford Richmond between 1981 and his replacement by Robin Cooke in 1986 President of the Court of Appeal and thus held one of the highest judicial offices in New Zealand. At the same time he became Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1981 .

On February 6, 2007 Woodhouse, who was chairman of the Law Commission from 1986 to 1991 , became a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), New Zealand's highest honor.

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personal data
SURNAME Woodhouse, Owen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woodhouse, Sir Arthur Owen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand naval officer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Napier , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 2014
Place of death Auckland