[1] Woof was born into a mining family, although his great-grandfather had been a cabin boy on Nelson's HMS Victory.
[3] He was educated at a Durham County school,[2] and left school to start work on his 14th birthday in Chopwell Colliery[3] where he became a coal face worker,[4] and also an officer of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for 15 years,[2] serving as treasurer of his local NUM branch from 1943.
[2] He was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in February 1956, following the death of the sitting MP, Labour's William Whiteley.
In 1973, he and fellow Labour MP Tom Urwin were awarded costs and damages after being libelled by The Journal newspaper.
This article about a Labour Party member of Parliament representing an English constituency is a stub.