Welcome, Guest
Username: Password: Remember me
  • Page:
  • 1

TOPIC:

Alfred Goodman - a Telegraph Battalion man through and through 6 years 7 months ago #55302

  • Rory
  • Rory's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Senior Member
  • Senior Member
  • Posts: 3323
  • Thank you received: 2121
Alfred Goodman

Sapper, Telegraph Battalion, Royal Engineers – Anglo Boer War
Sapper, S.A. Field Telegraph & Postal Corps – WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Transvaal, South Africa 1901 & 1902 to 9504 Sapr. A. Goodman, Tel. Bn. R.E.
- British War Medal to Pte. A. Goodman, S.A.F.T. & P.C.


Alfred Goodman was born in Bradford near the town of Manchester in Lancashire in 1877 the son of Richard Alfred Goodman, a Factory Engineer by trade and his first wife Emma (born Crews). He was baptised in Christ Church, Bradford on 11 April 1877. His mother passed away in 1879 when he was two years old.

Times must have been hard for the Goodman family at the point when the 1881 census gatherer knocked on the door of the little house in Cross Lane, Huddersfield (to whence the family had moved). Mr Goodman was unemployed and had a large family to support in the form of his own children as well as those of his second wife, Agnes Jane. These children were Elizabeth Ann Miller (11), Esther Goodman (7), Louisa Miller (5) and a 4 year old Alfred. To cap it all his father-in-law 69 year old John Sprotson, lived with them and was also unemployed. Judging by the surnames it seems that Mrs Goodman may well have been married and had children before she met Alfred’s father. Small wonder then that she was working as a Laundress to help make ends meet.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, things had improved. Mr Goodman, now listed as a Mechanical Engineer was employed giving his wife a much needed break. A 14 year old Alfred was already out to work earning a living as a Woollen Cloth Finisher. The family now lived in Jacobs Row, Huddersfield.

The peace and equanimity of late Victorian England was shattered in October 1899 when she went to war with two little-known and somewhat puny Boer Republics in far-away South Africa. The Transvaal and the Orange Free State took up arms against the Empire – it was anticipated that the war would be over by Christmas of that year but the Boers had other ideas. They weren’t the native hordes and other poorly armed rabble that the British Tommy was accustomed to fighting and vanquishing – these were white men, men of European descent hardened by the sun and the land and far better equipped and savvy than what the soldiers of the Empire were used to.

Their capitals fell, first Bloemfontein and then Pretoria but the Imperial authorities hadn’t reckoned on the indomitable spirit these hardy farmers possessed – the formal fighting over the Boers resorted to guerrilla-style warfare attacking small isolated British columns plundering their supplies and disrupting their Lines of Communication. An added attempt was made to bring the Cape Boers into the fracas on the side of the Boers and, to this end, Smuts and other Boer Generals crossed the Orange River into the southern and Eastern Cape working their way inexorably towards the coast.

This was the state of affairs in South Africa when the 1901 England census was conducted. That census showed a 24 year old Alfred still living with his parents at 13 Bath Terrace, Lockwood, Huddersfield. He was gainfully employed as a Telephone Inspector and almost ready to make his contribution to the war effort. Given his occupation it would have come as no surprise when he finally enlisted for service at Halifax on 26 August 1901 – he chose the Telegraph Battalion of the Royal Engineers – a natural fit.

On attestation he was, physically, found to be 5 feet 8 ½ inches in height weighing 129 pounds and with a sallow complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair. He had no marks about his person and was a member of the Church of England. Having been pronounced fit for the army he was assigned the rank of Sapper and no. 9504.

Soon after Goodman set sail for South Africa as part of the 1st Telegraph Battalion - but what did these chaps contribute whilst in the field? The movements of the Telegraph Battalions are not well documented but what is known is that at the turn of the century there were two divisions, of which the first was sent to South Africa. Ordinarily it was stationed at Aldershot, employed in purely military work, and constantly being exercised, while the other division was attached to the Postal Telegraph Service, and had charge of a large district in the South of England. This one, to which Goodman belonged, was sent to South Africa later on as we have learned.

Each section of a telegraph division was supplied with twenty miles of line, part of it being air-line and part insulated cable. A two-horse cart carried the latter, and there were three six-horse waggons for the air-line, besides other vehicles for supplies, technical equipment, and baggage. During the Boer War the Telegraph Battalion’s section laid 18,000 miles of telegraph and telephone cable. A total of 13,500,000 messages were handled in 4 years and the Battalion grew in strength from 600 to 2,500 men.

In times of war, a field company of engineers (197 officers and men) was added to every Division of infantry. A mounted detachment (116 officers and men) was added to every cavalry division. In addition, to every army corps, as Corps Engineers, was added a field company (197 officers and men), a pontoon company (200 officers and men), a staff and four sections of the telegraph battalion (226 officers and men), a field park (43 officers and men), a railway company (147 officers and men) and a balloon section (48 officers and men).

Having entered the fray at a late but still vital part of the war Goodman saw action in the Transvaal earning for himself that clasp to his Queens Medal along with the clasps South Africa 1901 and 1902. He took his discharge from the Royal Engineers in South Africa on 31 July 1902, a couple of months after the Boer War ended and having served a total of 340 days service – 298 of which was in South Africa.

Having elected to remain in South Africa Goodman sought employment and a wife – he found both, employment with the Post Office and a wife in the shape of Lilian. Settling on the West Rand near Johannesburg he set about creating a life for himself and his family. This was to be interrupted by the spectre of war once more. In August 1914 the Great War between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and hers broke out. This was a conflict which commanded world-wide attention and participation. Even South Africa, so lately at loggerheads with the British Empire and so far away from the source of it all, was called upon to do her bit as part of the Empire. Louis Botha, erstwhile Boer General and now Prime Minister of the recently formed Union of South Africa, finally prevailed in carrying a motion through parliament to support the Empire and, on 4 August 1914, South Africa was at war with Germany.

After initially supressing an internal revolt against the decision to go to war, Botha and his Minister of Defence, Jan Smuts, invaded German South West Africa. Goodman, now 38 years old, enlisted with the South African Field Telegraph and Postal Corps for service as a Sapper and with no. 1013 on 15 April 1915. Providing his next of kin as his wife of 15 Pretoria Street, Krugersdorp he was employed as a Linesman where, after an initial stop at Tempe outside Bloemfontein, he was sent to German South West Africa aboard the “Professor Woerman” on 27 April 1915. On arrival he was posted to Rehoboth where he was when peace was declared in July 1915. On 31 August 1915 he was posted to Military Posts and Telegraphs being discharged shortly thereafter. Goodman’s wasn’t a long war but he had seen enough service to earn the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal (the whereabouts of the first and last of these is unknown).
Back in civilian life he continued working as a Telephone Electrician and it was in this capacity that he took a trip to England aboard the S.S. “Euripides” in 1922 along with his wife and 21 year old son Douglas in 1929.

Alfred Goodman passed away at Addington Hospital in Durban on 7 October 1951 at the age of 74 years 7 months. He had been resident at 25 Bayswater, Pickering Street, Durban and was survived by his wife Ida Lilian Carlisle Goodman (born Hart) and two sons, Alfred Richard and Douglas Carlisle.




Attachments:
The following user(s) said Thank You: djb, QSAMIKE

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Alfred Goodman - a Telegraph Battalion man through and through 6 years 7 months ago #55322

  • djb
  • djb's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
  • Posts: 31550
  • Thank you received: 4500
A very interesting read this morning. Thank you, Rory.

I often read their outputs but not very much about the process so your information filled in the gaps
Dr David Biggins

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Page:
  • 1
Moderators: djb
Time to create page: 0.434 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum