Goodwin, John Edward

Age: 23
Date of birth: 14th September 1920

Parents: Tom Edward and Margaret Goodwin (nee Connolly)
Wife:
Address: Emscote, Warwick

Occupation:

We know from Navy Death records that John was born in Hyderabad, Sind, India on 14th September 1920 and CWGC records show his father and mother as Tom Edward and Margaret nee Connolly.
Margaret would seem to have died shortly after as Tom married Rosina B Stevens in Ladbroke Grove, London in 1923 and was listed on the marriage register as a widower.
Tom was a soldier and the family moved around. Tom Henry J (1925-1990) was born in Kensington, London. Margaret was born in Gibraltar in 1928. Rosemary was born in India in 1936. A shipping record states that Tom, Rosina and their children Tom, Margaret, Frederick (b1934), Rosemary and William (no DOB) travelled from India to Liverpool in 1936 and gave their address as 11, Exmoor St, North Kensington London.
The 1939 register shows the family living at 3 Beauchamp Road, Warwick and Tom working as a clerk for the war office.

John Edward’s probate wasn’t settled until 1963. £302 14s was left to his father, a retired civil servant living at 3 Beauchamp Road

Rosina, who was born in 1900 in Kensington, died in Warwick in 2000 6 months before her 100th birthday.

Military Service

Rank & Number: Petty Officer (Telegraphist), P/JX150370
Regiment/Service: Royal Navy
Brigade/Division: HMS Laforey
Date of death: 30th March 1944
Cause of death/Battle: Lost at sea
Commemorated/Buried: Commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire. Panel 84, Column 2
Awards:
Commemorated locally at: All Saints Church, Emscote

 

John was a telegraphist serving on the destroyer HMS Laforey in the Mediterranean. The ship was part of a convoy comprising HM Ships Tumult, Hambledon and Blencathra and they were hunting a U-boat, (U-223), north of Palermo. Depth charges brought the submarine to the surface where it came under fire from the destroyers, but before the U-boat was sunk, it was able to fire three torpedoes that struck the Laforey. She sank quickly. Out of a company of 247 only 65 survived.

 

Contributors

  • Unlocking Warwick Research Group

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