Woosnam was born in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, Wales on April 9, 1815. He was the third son of Bowen Woosnam and Elizabeth Cole. Bowen Woosnam, a solicitor by profession, was the first Mayor of Glandwr, Llanidloes, Montgom. Richard Woosnam attended the Gonville and Caius College of the University of Cambridge where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1840 and a Master of Arts degree in 1845. He was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons as a member in 1840. He joined the Bombay Army on February 15, 1840 as an assistant surgeon in the Indian Medical Service and was posted at Aden. He became a surgeon on January 7, 1853 and retired on April 26, 1859.He became Henry Pottinger's surgeon in 1841 and was later made Assistant Secretary of Legation. Except when campaigning with Pottinger in China, Woosnam was stationed in Hong Kong between 1841 and 1844. In 1843, he was appointed Deputy Colonial Secretary as well as a Justice of the Peace (official), one of the first 44 JPs appointed for Hong Kong. He became Pottinger's secretary during the time when the latter was the governor of Cape of Good Hope (1846-47) and of Madras (1847-54). Woosnam retied to Glandwr, Llanidloes, Wales in 1859. He resided at Knapp Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham in 1862. He was Justice of the Peace of Breconshire. Magistrate, Brecknock and Montgomery. He was chairman of the combined school-boards of the borough and parish of Llanidloes. He was appointed High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1878. He died on November 27, 1888 in Tyn-y-graig, Co. Brecon (or Builth) and was buried in Llanidloes. Woosnam was awarded the China War Medal (1842) in 1843.
Woosnam was married to Margaret Bell, daughter of William Bell, of Co. Kildare. The marriage bore six children: Margaret Helena Woosnam, (b.1847-d.1928); Caroline Eliza Woosnam (b.1849); Bowen Pottinger Woosnam (b.1850-d.1909); Richard Burgass Woosnam (b. September 19, 1851, Madras; BA 1874; solicitor, address: Newton Abbot, Devon); and Charles William Woosnam (b.1854-d.1920); and Mary Woosnam (b.1857).
The silblings of Richard Woosnam were: Charles Thomas Woosnam (solicitor); James Bowen Woosnam[1]; and Elizabeth Alice Woosnam (wife of the Rev. George Fisher, of the Royal Hospital Greenwich).
[Woosnam owned two house situated (easternmost) on Queen's Road in 1860. He gave instructions to Jardine, Matheson & Co., as his agent, to dispose of these properties on July 9, 1862.]
[1] James Bowen Woosnam, born in 1812, was in the army and his final rank was Army Major-General, Inspector-General of Ordnance. He was married to Agnes Bell, sister of Margaret Bell, Richard Woosnam's wife. They lived in India between 1841 and 1860, and raised six daughters and two sons, all born in India. Their second daughter Esther (Etty), d.1842, was the author of two notable books about women in the Bible: Women of the Bible, Old Testament (London: Partridge, 1881) and Women of the Bible, New Testament (London: Partridge, 1885).
Selected bibliography: The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia, September - December, 1840, London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1840. Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College: 1349-1895. Calendar of Probates and Administration Granted by the Supreme Court of Hong Kong during the Year 1892. de Groot, Christiana (Ed.), Taylor, Marion Ann (Ed.), Recovering Nineteenth-century Women Interpreters of the Bible, [s.l.]:Society of Biblical Literature, 2007. Janus: the Jardine Matheson Archive [internet]. The Peerage [internet]. rootsweb [internet].
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