William James (Bill) GOODRIDGE

GOODRIDGE, William James

Service Number: WX12251
Enlisted: 2 May 1941
Last Rank: Sapper
Last Unit: 1 Ordnance Field Park
Born: Croydon, London, England, 10 March 1912
Home Town: Perth, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Truck and Tractor Driver
Died: Scarborough, Perth, Western Australia, 22 October 1967, aged 55 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia
MCB-172092-N4Q8C1 KC00028914 KARRAKATTA CEMETERY Cremation
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World War 2 Service

2 May 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX12251
27 Sep 1941: Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, WX12251, 6th Division Cavalry Regiment, Middle East
23 Dec 1942: Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, 2nd/2nd Ordnance Stores Company
27 Jan 1943: Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, WX12251, 2nd/2nd Ordnance Stores Company, embarked Middle East for Fremantle per HMT L2
24 Aug 1943: Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, 52nd Field Park Company
20 Jun 1944: Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, 2nd/3rd Ordnance Field Park
16 Nov 1945: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX12251
18 Nov 1945: Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, WX12251, 1 Ordnance Field Park, embarked Sydney for Fremantle per Andes

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Sapper William James Goodridge (Service No:WX12251) enlisted in the Army on 2 May 1941 with 1 Training Battalion and embarked for the Middle East with 6 Division Cavalry on 26 September 1941. Sapper Goodridge served with 2/2 Ordnance Stores Coy and embarked from the Middle East for the RTA on 27 January 1943. Sapper Goodridge served with 62 Field Park Coy and was attached to 1 Australian Ordnance Field Park at Discharge on 16 November 1945.

Born in 1912 in Surrey England, Bill was the fifth of eleven children of Ernest Goodridge (b1882 in Surrey, England) and Caroline Lowder (b1883 in Kent, England). Ernest (a General Shop Dealer) and Caroline (a Wardrobe Dealer) married in 1900 in Kent, England and settled in Croydon where Ernest was a Marine Store Dealer before the family immigrated in 1914, arriving in Fremantle WA on board the Australind - Ernest listed his occupation as Labourer. Ernest and Caroline settled in Collie, WA where Ernest was a Driver and Plasterer when he enlisted in the AIF in 1915 (Private; Service No:3837). Following his Discharge in 1916, Ernest and Caroline settled in Leederville, Perth where Ernest worked as a Fireman before being alloted land in the early 1920s at Bramley Siding nr Cowaramup WA under the Group 17 Settler Scheme. By the late 1920s Ernest and Caroline had returned to Perth with their children, and Ernest worked as a Storeman.

In the early 1930s Bill worked in York WA as a Farm Hand and General Labourer, and was a Farm Hand in Perth in 1938 when he married Joyce Veronica Kirk (b1922 in Moora, WA). Bill and Joyce lived in Tammin nr Cunderdin, in 1946 and by 1949 were settled at Moline via Northam where Bill was a Farmer. Bill and Joyce divorced in 1956 and Joyce moved to Victoria where she remarried. Bill died in 1967.

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