Service highlights
- Service Number: 703224
- Born: 14 November 1887, St. Marys, Ontario
- Enlisted: 4 January 1916, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Unit: 102nd (North British Columbia) Canadian Infantry Battalion, CEF
- Training in Canada: Vancouver, then Goose Spit near Comox on Vancouver Island
- Overseas ship to England: SS Empress of Britain, departed Halifax 10 June 1916, arrived Liverpool 30 June 1916
- Ship to France: SS Connaught, sailed from England 11 August 1916
- Died: night of 22 October 1916, near Courcelette, France, from a shrapnel wound to the head
- Burial: reinterred after the war at Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont, France
- Next of kin listed: his aunt, Mrs Catherine Pearn of Stratford, Ontario
- Remembered: commemorated on the cenotaph in St. Marys
A Life and Service Remembered
George Jeffery Gooding was born in St. Marys on 14 November 1887, and his childhood was marked by loss early on. By the time he was six years old, his parents, his three year old sister, and his grandfather had all died from unrelated causes. He was raised by relatives, and built a life rooted in community and effort.
As a teenager he attended St. Marys Collegiate Institute and earned a place on the St. Marys junior lacrosse team, the Alerts. Later, like many young men looking for work and opportunity, he went west. By 1911 he was living in Vancouver as a clerk, and by 1914 he was working as a salesman. People who knew him there remembered him as well liked, especially in lacrosse circles, the kind of detail that hints at the friendships and routines that existed before the war pulled everything apart.
He enlisted in Vancouver on 4 January 1916 with the 102nd Battalion. The early months were spent training and waiting, first around Vancouver and then at Goose Spit near Comox, a former navy gunnery range turned temporary camp. The battalion lived with constant rumours that they would be sent overseas, and the waiting became its own kind of strain.
On 10 June 1916 the promises finally became real. The 102nd entrained for Halifax and sailed for England on the SS Empress of Britain, arriving at Liverpool on 30 June. After more training in England, the battalion sailed for France on 11 August 1916 on the SS Connaught.
In France, the 102nd first went into the Ypres Salient to learn trench warfare, then moved south on 10 October into the Somme as the battle entered its final stages. On 21 October the 102nd and 87th attacked from Vancouver Trench north of Courcelette, crossed roughly 500 yards of no man’s land, and captured a portion of Regina Trench. The fight did not end with the capture. The days that followed were filled with working parties, digging, strengthening, and holding ground under steady shellfire.
George was part of that work. On the night of 22 October 1916, while with a work party near Courcelette, he was struck in the head by shrapnel and died before he could be evacuated. A notice published after his death reported that he had only recently been assigned to a machine gun section, a reminder of how quickly roles changed at the front and how little time there was to settle into any one routine.
After the war, his remains were moved to Adanac Military Cemetery in Miraumont, France. At home, St. Marys placed his name among the others on the cenotaph, a public promise that he would not be forgotten.
Major battles and operations
- Trench service in the Ypres Salient, Belgium
- Somme operations, October 1916
- Attack and capture of part of Regina Trench, 21 October 1916
- Working parties and defensive improvements near Courcelette, October 1916
Learn More
https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/575144
https://somme-roll-of-honour.com/Units/canadian/102nd_Canadian_Infantry_CEF.htm
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=9365
http://www.102ndbattalioncef.ca/warpages/Casualties/102nd%20Bn%20Only_files/sheet001.htm
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/5893152
The Fallen, Richard Holt, 703224 Private GJ Gooding, Pg 23