As a boy he spent 10 years in England, before returning to Ontario and completed his secondary education at the Collegiate Institute, Barrie.
Although he studied for a doctorate, due to teaching commitments and a lack of interest in some of the modules he failed to obtain one from Harvard.
In 1944 he joined the University of Toronto as head of both the college and the graduate departments.
[2] Woodhouse was a leading authority on the work and times of the English Poet John Milton.
[2] He received many honours, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1942 and an honorary Dr. Litt.