GODDEN, William John
| Service Number: | 515 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 48th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Grays, Essex, United Kingdom, 1880 |
| Home Town: | Leonora, Leonora, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 6 August 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
Pozières British Cemetery Grave IV. M. 46., Pozieres British Cemetery Ovillers-La Boisselle, Pozieres, Picardie, France, Serre Road Cemetery No 2, Beaumont Hamel, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Dec 1914: | Involvement Private, 515, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec 1914: | Embarked Private, 515, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), HMAT Ceramic, Melbourne | |
| 6 Aug 1916: | Involvement Sergeant, 515, 48th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 515 awm_unit: 48 Battalion awm_rank: Sergeant awm_died_date: 1916-08-06 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
His birth was registered in Orsett which registration district covered Grays in those days.
Births Sep 1880 GODDEN William John Orsett 4a 261
He was 36 and the son of the late William Lucas Godden and Margaret Ann Godden [nee Reay].His parents married in South Shields, a coastal town at the mouth of the River Tyne, England, about 3.7 miles downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne. Historically, it was in County Durham, On the 1910 census he is shown as having been born in Grays and that he was 20 years old and the eldest of four children. His father had died, aged 51 in 1900.William was employed as a cleaner of railway carriages. He had lived in Tilbury until about 1907 when he went to the West Australia gold mines.In1914 he enlisted in the A.I.F. He was wounded at Gallipoli, then served in Egypt before proceeding to France in May 1916.
He was killed in action during the assault by the 48th Bn. Australian Infantry, A.I.F. upon the Pozieres Plateau.
The Grays and Tilbury Gazette of 4th August 1917, a year after his death, records that his mother, of 1 Montreal Road, Tilbury had received news that he was now officially reported as dead, having previously been reported as wounded and missing.
In the United Kingdom, he is commemorated on the Tilbury War Memorial in Civic Square, Tilbury, Essex and on the war memorial in St John’s church, Dock Road, Tilbury.
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