Alfred Turner Goodchild

WWI Roll of Honour

By Lynette Wray

Alfred Turner Goodchild

Military History:        

Regiment:                               Labour Corps
                                                 (formerly Royal West Surrey Regiment)

Rank:                                      Corporal

Service Number:                    79392 (formerly 49399)

Date of Enlisting:                   8.12.1915

Date of death:                        18.11.1922

Cemetery/ Memorial:             Ashwell Cemetery

UK Cemetery/Memorial:       St Mary’s Church, Ashwell Roll of Honour

Alfred enlisted with the Queen’s Own Royal West Surry Regiment, Regimental Number 49399, on 8th December 1915 in Holloway, London.  He disembarked in Boulogne on 18th March 1917, transferred to the Labour Corps, Regimental Number 79392, on 14th May 1917, rapidly being promoted to Lance Corporal and then Corporal in December 1917. He saw active service in the Western Europe Theatre of War, France and Flanders. Alfred survived the war and returned to Ashwell where he died in November 1922 after six months illness.

Alfred was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour and is buried in the Ashwell Cemetery.

Family History:

Date of Birth:                5.1884

Birth Place:                  Ashwell, Hertfordshire

Residence:                   Islington, London

Marriage:                     8.12.1906

Alfred was born in May 1884 in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, the only surviving son of Charles and Naomi (nee Brown) Goodchild. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell. After the death of his mother he and his father lived with his grandmother, Sarah Brown, and after his father died he lived with his grandfather, Turner Goodchild.

Alfred left Ashwell at the age of 16 and went to live in London where he worked as a drayman for Whitbread’s Brewery.

He married Eliza Ann Covington at St Silas’ Church, Clerkenwell, London on 8 December 1906. They had one daughter together, Gladys May, born in Islington, London on 2 December 1911.

After the war Alfred returned to Ashwell where he worked for Fordham’s Brewery.

Alfred died on 18th November 1922 in Ashwell after six months illness. He is buried in Ashwell.

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