He was influential in the development of the early Pilot ACE computer, working with Alan Turing, and later the design and documentation of programming languages such as ALGOL 60 and Ada.

[1] He was based at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) located in Teddington, London, for most of his career.

His father was Joseph Henry Woodger (1894–1981), a professor of biology at the University of London.

[1] He graduated from University College London in 1943 and worked at the Ministry of Supply on military applications for the rest of World War II.

[3] In May 1946, he then joined the new Mathematics Division at the National Physical Laboratory located in west London.