Edwin William Arthur Golby

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

Edwin William Arthur Golby
Private M2/034980
273rd Motor Transport Company, Army Service Corp

Division 71
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Golby EWA photo Casualty Record Detail

Edwin William Arthur Golby  was the son of Mr Edwin and Mrs Rose Golby, of 63, Donnington Gardens, Reading.  In the 1911 census his father was recorded as a Coach Driver and Edwin as an apprentice carpenter. Edwin had an older and younger sister. He is commemorated on the family grave. Number 17928.   Berkshire Family History Society classification 72G16.  The wording on the kerbstone is ‘EDDIE ONLY SON, LOST AT SEA JANUARY 8TH 1916 AGED 21’. 

Edwin Golby was lost when the ship the S.S. Citta di Palermo, was mined.  The SS Citta Di Palermo, an Italian transport carrying Commonwealth troops. It was sunk off Brindisi, a port on the heel of Italy in the Adriatic, on 8 January 1916.  In rescuing survivors, two Royal Naval Otranto drifters were themselves mined and blown up. Edwin Golby is remembered on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton.  This memorial is to the officers and men of the forces of the Empire who fell in the Great War and whose graves are not known, especially those lost in home waters.

The full commemoration reads:

1914-1918 TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF 1855 OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR AND HAVE NO OTHER GRAVE BUT THE SEA OR TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH.

 1916 saw an increasing number of attacks on merchant ships right from the beginning of the year.  The USA was warned that its merchant ships would be treated as ‘belligerent’ by the German fleet and the British, in an effort to starve out Germany set in force a blockade.  The Battle of Jutland was fought at the end of May between the fleets of both navies.

Wilfred Douglas Goddard

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme, St Mary's Church Castle Street Memorial

Wilfred Douglas Goddard
Private 37980
“B” Company 8th Battalion Gloucestershire Regt.

Division 42

Goddard WD photo  CIMG2111

Wilfred Douglas Goddard was the youngest of six children; five boys and one girl. Two of his brothers assisted their father in the family butchery business, one brother was a mechanic according to the 1911 census.  Wilfred is commemorated on the family grave number 8918 of the Reading Cemetery.  His parents were James and Susannah Ellen Goddard of 10, Castle Street, Reading.  

At one stage Wilfred was reported as missing, see caption on picture, but he died of wounds on 2nd May 1918,  in Wevllghem Belgium and was buried at Harlebeke New British Cemetery XI. E.1 Wilfred Goddard was 20 years old.  The exact circumstances of how he received his injuries are not  known however, the Germans had begun their spring offensive and fighting was severe all along the front line. ‘Soldiers Died’ indicates that Wilfred had served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment as Private 33658.

George William Goddard and Edwin Harry Goddard

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme, St. Batholomew's Church

George William Goddard
Corporal 200475
2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment

Edwin Harry Goddard
Private 42709
9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

Division 74
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Goddard Bros GW & EH photo

George William Goddard and Edwin Harry Goddard were the sons of Mr George and Mrs Emma Ann Goddard, of 32, Coventry Road, Reading.  They were the eldest sons of seven children. According to the 1911 census  George William was a gardener like his father and Edwin a bakers assistant. The brothers are remembered on the St. Bartholomew’s Church war memorial and on their sister’s grave.

Goddard Rcem grave

 

War records are not available for the brothers. George served with the 8th Division and Edwin with the 36th (Ulster) Division.  These divisions fought in the following battles: Battle of St. Quentin. 21-23 Mar 1918. Actions of the Somme crossings. 24-25 Mar 1918. Battle of Rosieres. 26-27 Mar 1918.  Both men were killed within seven days of each other at the start of the German Spring Offensive in 1918.  On the 21st March the Germans broke through on a fifty-mile front between the Sensée and Oise rivers.  Various British battle positions were penetrated, especially near St. Quentin.

 George William Goddard was reported wounded and missing on 22nd March, he was 25.  On this day British defences west of St. Quentin were broken through and a hasty retreat was ordered.  The Germans took 16,000 prisoners and 200 guns.  The body of George Goddard was eventually identified and he was buried in Pargny British Cemetery, Somme.  Location II.E.13.  Pargny Cemetery was made after the Armistice, by concentrating graves from the surrounding battlefields.  More than three-quarters of the burials in this cemetery of over 600 graves are unidentified.

The German advance continued with a vengeance.  There was much fierce fighting as the British resisted at the Somme crossings.  By the 24th March the Germans were boasting the taking of 30.000 prisoners and 600 guns.  So fast was the advance of the Germans that by the 26th March the British had lost the town of  Albert, the Germans were only 12 kilometres from Amiens by the following day.  Further fighting continued with the French launching counter attacks.  However, by the 29th March the Germans were claiming to have captured 70,000 prisoners and 1100 guns since the start of the offensive.

On the 29th March Edwin Harry Goddard was reported missing.  Edwin’s body was never identified and he is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial, Panel 38 to 40.

Goddard EH mem name

The British were shaken and on 11th April Haig issued a ‘Special Order’ to all ranks which included the now famous words,

“There is no course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.  With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause we must fight to the end”.