Cranleigh Lodge

He remained affiliated with the military forces and was in the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War I. Woosley was appointed a temporary Lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Army Ordnance Corps in July 1915. He was promoted to temporary Captain in April 1916 and appointed a Deputy Assistant Director (Cl K) in the War Office with rank of Major in June 1919.

Major Woosley returned to Queensland after the war and in 1928 commissioned the construction of the Bay Terrace home. Days later he left for London aboard the Orient Line's RMS °roma. It seems likely that he did not return from the UK, and in 1929 the property was sold to Clarence Marmaduke Wilson. It remains in the ownership of the Wilson family.

The architect responsible for the design of the house was Joseph Vaudville Douyere Coutts who, at that time, was the sole partner of the firm R Coutts and Sons established with his father, Robert Coutts snr in 1914. J.V.D. Coutts was an active member in the Queensland Institute of Architects and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Qld Chapter during the 1920s and 1930s. He was co-founder of the Architectural and Building Journal- of Queensland in 1922 and editor and business manager from 1923 to 1944. While the Coutts family designed a number of houses in Warwick and had offices in Ipswich, and J.V.D. Coutts' second• cousin designed Windsor Town Council Chambers in Brisbane; the work of J.V.D. Coutts is relatively undocumented. R Coutts and Sons Architects had offices in Brisbane from 1914 with Robert Coutts then J.V.D. Coutts living in Union Street, Toowong. In 1929 J V D Coutts had moved to Armitage Street, Lota having an established practice in Wyrmum by the time tenders were called in April 1928 for the construction of this house. The successful tenderer for this substantial residence was James B Cramb of Northgate. The estimated cost of the work was an astounding £3200, at a time when the average price for building a home was around £600.

Major Woosley doesn't appear to have resided in the house he commissioned and it may not have been built directly following the building approval, particularly as the 'great depression' began in 1929. However, by 1934 C.M. Wilson is recorded as receiving mail at this property on the corner of Walnut Street and Bay [sometimes recorded as Kingsley] Terrace. No application was submitted by him to have a different house built on this property. In 1947 approval was given for G. Wilson to establish a "chemical experiment plant ... for hobby purposes only" on the property.

1. Architecture and Building Journal of Queensland. 10 April 1928

2. Brisbane City Council, Building Application Registers

3. BCC building cards

4. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

5. Brisbane Courier 20 April 1928, Shipping Intelligence, RMS Orama

6. London Gazette Supplement. 26 July 1915, 28 April 1916, 18 June 1919, 4 Sept 1919

7. National Archives of Australia. 7th Battalion Australian Commonwealth Horse ... Attestation ... http://naa12.naa.gov.au

8. Queensland Certificates of Title

9. Queensland Pioneers Index 1829-1889

10. Queensland Post Office Directories

11. Watson, Donald and Judith McKay. A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940. (St. Lucia: U of Q Press, 1984)

12. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994