Victor Robert Woodley was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 goalkeeper who played for both Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

 and the England national side

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 between the wars.

Woodley was spotted by a Chelsea scout whilst playing for Windsor and Eton and signed for the club in 1931, making his debut the same year. Woodley was a member of the glamorous Chelsea side of the 1930s, playing alongside the likes of Hughie Gallacher

Hughie Gallacher

Hugh Kilpatrick "Hughie" Gallacher was a Scottish football player in the 1920s and 1930s. In 624 senior games, Gallacher scored 463 times....

, Alex Jackson

Alex Jackson

Alexander Skinner Jackson was a Scottish footballer.Alex Jackson was born in Renton in 1905. A highly-talented winger, known as the Gay Cavalier, he was particularly adept at dribbling and free kicks. He initially played for Renton Victoria Football Club but was transferred to Dumbarton F.C. in...

 and Alec Cheyne

Alec Cheyne

Alexander George 'Alec' Cheyne was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside-forward. He is reputed to have been responsible for the Hampden Roar following his goal in the 'Cheyne International' of 1929....

. Known for his reliability and his impressive sense of anticipation, Woodley's performances were often key to preserving Chelsea's First Division status with his high-profile team mates invariably failing to live up to expectations. So reliable was he that he kept John Jackson

John Jackson (footballer)

John Jackson is an English former footballer who made 656 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Crystal Palace, Leyton Orient, Millwall, Ipswich Town and Hereford United.-Career:...

, Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

's first choice goalkeeper, out of the Chelsea side.

Woodley won nineteen caps

Cap (sport)

In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...

 for England - all consecutive, a record at the time - and in an era when there was stiff competition for the England goakeeping jersey from Harry Hibbs, George Tweedy

George Tweedy

George Jacob Tweedy , was an English footballer who played goalkeeper and earned one cap for England. He was a one club player for Grimsby Town....

 and Frank Swift

Frank Swift

Frank Victor Swift was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester City and England. After starting his career with local clubs near his home town of Blackpool, in 1932 he was signed by First Division Manchester City, with whom he played his entire professional career.Swift...

. Woodley was a member of the England side which toured Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 in 1938, performing the Hitler salute

Hitler salute

The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...

 before the match at the Olympiastadion

Olympic Stadium (Berlin)

The Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March...

. His international career was ended prematurely by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Woodley briefly resumed his playing career with Chelsea after the War, playing in their famous friendly match against Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 side, Dynamo Moscow

FC Dynamo Moscow

Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Moscow, currently playing in the Russian Premier League. Dynamo's traditional kit colours are blue and white...

, but left on a free transfer shortly afterwards and joined Bath City

Bath City F.C.

Bath City Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset. They play in the Conference National league after gaining promotion from the Conference South via the play-offs in May 2010...

. An injury crisis among Derby County

Derby County F.C.

Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...

's goalkeepers saw Woodley return to the First Division

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 early in 1946, making a further 30 league appearances. Woodley's career also ended on a high note, as he kept goal during Derby's 4-1 FA Cup final win over Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

.

He died in October 1978.