It had been originally foreseen that John would have joined the family firm (overseas removal business) when he came down from Cambridge.
However he had, very much against his mother's express wishes, decided to marry Sheila.
Edith Woodbridge certainly didn't like not having her own way and therefore made sure that the offer of employment was withdrawn as well as doing what she could to make a wedding at the church as difficult as she could.

it was not until a few years had passed, and actually precipitated by an accident in which his father, (Ernest) Stanley broke a leg and needed to be off work for an extended period that some accommodation was reached. The company had discovered that no one else was capable of managing the company's finances, so it became expedient that John (who had had earlier involvement in his student days) belated became employed. Family relations were still effectively non-existent until the arrival of grandson Peter in 1961 did much to improve.  It was some years later that Edith felt able to complement Sheila on the way she had brought up her children, comparing it positively to the upbringing of our cousins (not sure what they would think about that mind!)

He continued with the business, becoming a Director and Company Secretary around 1965 and ran it with his slightly older cousins until they decided to sell the company.  This was due to a mixture of personal considerations relating to approaching retirement and the changing world which meant that the "high-end" corporate business which provided the majority of the income was declining- travel and communication was improving and so the need for a local representative to be relocated to a foreign city for a few years and then being moved on elsewhere and themselves be replaced by someone else no longer formed the steady stream of work that it once had.