Pierce Arthur GOOLD

GOOLD , Pierce Arthur

Service Number: 930
Enlisted: 7 September 1914, Sydney, New South Wales
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 3rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Cobar, New South Wales, Australia, 21 February 1877
Home Town: Chatswood, Willoughby, New South Wales
Schooling: Mrs Blakey's Private School, Cobar; St Stanislans College, Bathurst; St Igantius College, Riverview
Occupation: Accountant (Murphy & Moloney), Law Student, Business owner
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, 29 April 1915, aged 38 years
Cemetery: Courtney’s and Steel's Post Cemetery
Plot E, Grave 10. Also Panel 36 on the AWM Memorial
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
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World War 1 Service

7 Sep 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Sydney, New South Wales
20 Oct 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 930, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1,

--- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''

20 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 930, 3rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
25 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 930, 3rd Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli

Further information

"He owned the general store in Cobar known as the Great Western Emporium." Pierce Arthur's father Pierce Patrick Goold started this store and died in 1904.

Of interest is "after his death it was revealed that he was a 38 year old accountant for the legal firm Murphy and Moloney". Murphy and Moloney was co-founded by his brother-in-law Francis Nicholas Moloney, who married Pierce Arthur's younger sister Coralie Viola Mary Goold (my grandmother) in 1905.

Elizabeth Shannon.

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Biography

ENLISTED under  "GOULD" - actual spelling is "GOOLD"

Information provided by great grandaughter.

There were 3 generations of Pierce Goold's. Pierce Arthur (b. 1877) was the eldest son of Pierce Patrick (b. 1849) and Pierce Patrick's father was Pierce, born in Cork Ireland in 1815. (Detail provided by great grandaughter.)

Born in 1877 at Bourke, NSW.

Father Pierce Goold 
b. 1849  d. 1892, Newtown, NSW   m. 1876 at Bourke
Mother Mary Jane Goold (nee McGrade)
b. 1856 in Ireland, daughter of Bernard McGrade and Margarert McGinn
d. 1945 at North Sydney, NSW (ages 89 years).

Pierce was the eldest of 7 children.

Siblings:
Sister       Lynnette I E Goold  (b. 1884 Cobar - d. ____)
Sister       Philomena Goold  (b. 1885 Cobar - d. ____)
Brother     Charles H C Goold  (b. 1878 Balmain - d. _____)
Sister       Coralie V M Goold (b. 1880 Cobar - d. ____)
Sister       Emily E V Goold  (b. 1887 Cobar - d. ____)
Sister       Clarice M A Goold  (b. 1889 Cobar - d. ____) 

He owned a general store on the corner of Marshall and Linsley Street’s known as the
Great Western Emporium.

He built the Great Western Hotel ** in 1898 and extended it in 1903. The hotel is famed
for having the longest wrought iron lace veranda in the southern hemisphere. (** Goold's great grandaughter indicates that it is her understanding that the Great Western Hotel was built Pierce Goold senior - the father of Pierce Goold - born 1877)

When the Great Western was first constructed, it carried Mr.Goold’s name and the year
1898 on the original façade, but in 1923 lightning struck the façade, splitting it down
the middle. Half of it fell through the roof into the bar and the other half fell through
the balcony to the footpath below.

He lived with his mother prior to enlisting at Chatswood, New South Wales.

Described on enlisting as 33 years old; single; a Bushman; 5' 10" tall; 168 lbs;
dark complexion; brown eyes; black hair; Roman Catholic.

When Pierce Goold enlisted in the 3rd Battalion a month after the declaration of war in
August 1914,  he downplayed his qualifications and abilities.
After his death it was revealed that he was a 38-year-old accountant for the legal firm
Murphy and Moloney, and a student at law, who had founded the NSW Country 
Storekeeper’s Association
and conducted several businesses and not as he stated
on his attestation form, a 33-year-old bushman.

7/9/1914      Enlisted in Sydney, New South Wales

20/10/1914  Embarked from Sydney Harbour, on board HMAT A14 Euripides
                   as a Private in the 3rd Battalion, E Company
2/12/1914    disembarked into Egypt

5/4/1915      embarked to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Forces
                    on board Dorflinger, for ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli 

25/4/1915    was involved in the LANDING on ANZAC

Private Goold was at the landing on 25 April 1915 and, within days, reported as missing.
Numerous enquiries were made through the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing
Enquiry Bureau with conflicting reports being received.

His close friend #949 Corporal Robert Lawson stated that:

"he  was my closest chum, I had last seen him on 27 April 1915, two days after the landing,
 I had to go down to the telephone and left him with the New Zealanders, and they had to
retire 100 yards. I made enquiry and according to two men he was wounded in the leg and
they could not bring him back with them."

Later, it was reported that Goold had been shot in the leg.

Further information came from Sergeant Major Alfred Edwards to the effect that the severely
wounded Goold had had to be left on a Turkish trench, half way between German Officer’s
Trench and Johnson’s Jolly. He believed that Goold almost certainly died shortly afterwards 
and was buried by the Turks during the Armistice of 24 May 1915.

Despite its long exposure to the elements an Australian identity disc, found on the
remains of a soldier in 1924, during exhumation work in the Kurija Dere Area, ANZAC, and
was sufficient to identify Private Pierce Goold before his remains were re-interred at
Courtney's and Steel’s Post.  (the ID disc was returned to his mother).

Several years earlier, family members had written to military authorities that his mother,
Mary Goold, had been traumatised by the loss of her son and the non-recovery of his remains.
Her health was seriously impaired for a number of years. It seems that Mrs Goold had initially
learnt of her son’s death from a casualty list published in the Sydney Sunday Sun rather than
the usual method of a telegram delivered by a member of the clergy.

After almost nine years, Mary Goold was finally able to put her mind to rest. Her family passed
on the official notification from the authorities, that at last her son’s remains had been located
and identified. The disc was sent to relatives who later passed it to her. She wrote to thank the
staff and expressed her appreciation that she was very pleased to have the disc because of its
former intimate association with her son.

His date of death is officially recorded as 29 April 1915.

1924         His remains and ID Discs being found

He was reinterred into:
                Courtney's and Steele's Post Cemetery
                Plot E, Grave 10

Medals:
1914-15 Star (19478);  British War Medal (2945);  Victory Medal (2946);
Memorial Plaque and Memorial Scroll (301620)
(later his family donated the medals to the AWM)

Commemorated on:
The Great Western Hotel at the corner of Marshall and Linsley Streets stands as a memorial to well
known Cobar historic figure Pierce Arthur Goold.

Thank you to the Department of Veteran Affairs for their information and headstone.

Sourced and submitted by Julianne T Ryan.  21/2/2015.  Lest we forget.

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