Name
Arthur Lewes Goodege
07 April 1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/12/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
614369
London Regiment *1
19th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN
P. VI. A. 2A.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, Sunnyside Memorial, Berkhamsted
Pre War
Arthur Lewes Goodege was born on 7 April 1881 in Berkhamsted, the son of Ann and George Goodege and baptised there on 1 May 1884.
On the 1891 Census Arthur was living with his mother and 7 siblings in George Street, Northchurch, Berkhamsted. His father was not listed with them and his mother was working doing washing and charring. The family remained in George Street on the 1901 Census, but his mother was still working as a laundress and his father was not listed with them. Arthur was not living in the family home but was registered in Wigginton, Berkhamsted on the Champneys estate, working as a gardener.
His father George appears to have been living as a boarder in 1901 and 1911 at Potten End with Edward and Sarah Smith (his sister). He was listed as a widower.
By the time of the 1911 Census, Arthur was living with his sister and brother in law, William and Alice Minton, at 1st Floor Flat, 36 Ingham Road, West Hampsted, London, where he was working as a Jobbing Gardener.
He married Bessie Louisa Marven in the summer of 1913 in Hampstead. After his death she lived at 45 Solent Road, West Hampstead, NW6.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Hampstead and initially served with the Bedford Regiment under reg. no. 1370. He was later transferred to the 19th (County of London) Battalion (St. Pancras), London Regiment.
He died of wounds (gas shells) at the 9th General Hospital, France, on 3 December 1917. The exact circumstances of his death are not known, but the 19th Battalion were involved in the Battle of Cambrai and had captured Bourlon Wood on 29 November, however, the following morning they were hit by a German counter-attack, particularly gas shells. Out of 15 officers and more than 600 men who took up position in the wood, only 5 officers and 65 other ranks remained in the line by the end of the day, and many of these were later evacuated to hospital suffering from the effects of gas.
Additional Information
His widow Bessie received a pension of 13 shillings 6 pence a week. She also received a war gratuity of £4 and pay owing of £7 2s 4d.
Brother to George Richard Goodege who was killed in action at Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia in 1915 and who is named on the Basra Memorial, Iraq.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (St Pancras).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org. Paul Johnson
