William John Patrick 'Paddy' Woolcock was born in Brisbane. His parents were John Laskey Woolcock and Ida Hague Woolcock. He was educated at Brisbane Grammar School, (of which his father, Mr Justice Woolcock of the Queensland Supreme Court and one of the founders of the University of Queensland, was a trustee), and then at the University of Sydney from which he graduated in 1940. He became a member of the RACP in 1946, and a fellow in 1972. After internship at Toowoomba Hospital, his war service was with the Royal Australian Air Force from 1942 to 1946. This included service at Milne Bay, and other New Guinea postings. Subsequently he joined the staff of 112th Australian General Hospital, Brisbane. His postgraduate study was in Sydney and in London in 1946 and 1947. As was common at that time, he travelled to and from England as a ship's surgeon. While in England he studied at the Brompton, London Chest, Great Ormond Street and Queen Square Hospitals.

On return to Australia he was attached to the Broken Hill Hospital as resident physician, for two years. He was then at the Repatriation Hospital, Adelaide for a year, before returning to Brisbane to the Repatriation Hospital at Greenslopes. He continued to be a member of the Repatriation staff until his retirement in 1980. During this period he was in charge of the treatment of tuberculosis and other chest diseases in ex-servicemen and so contributed considerably to the development and success of the Australian tuberculosis control programme. He saw the notification of pulmonary tuberculosis in Queensland fall from 70.1/100000 in 1953 to twelve in 1980 and 4.2 by the time of his death.

He was a member of a group of physicians and surgeons who met regularly to review and coordinate the management of tuberculosis patients particularly in the earlier years of the programme when artificial pneumothorax, thoracoplasty and pulmonary resection were in use, and before the benefits of chemotherapy were fully known. The group still meets — it is now a regular part of the Prince Charles Hospital teaching programme. In 1979 he published an article 'Pulmonary Disease caused by Mycobacterium Xenopi in an Australian man, with DJ Dawson as co-author (Med J Aust, 1979, 2, 175-7). He retired in 1980, but as long as his health allowed he maintained an active medical interest. In 1950 he married Dorothy Beryl Pettit, always known as Judy. Paddy's approach to his work, as to his life, was best described by one of his co-workers of that time as that of "utter reliability — he did what he set out to do and never made a fuss of it". After his retirement he worked to assist war widows via Legacy and to enjoy his intense interest in history as well as woodwork and book binding. He is survived by Judy, his wife of forty years, and by his sister, Joananne.