87444 S-Sth C A Goodman RFA broken trio - served 12th (Eastern), 36th (Ulster) & 15th (Scottish) Divisions

87444 S-Sth C A Goodman RFA broken trio - served 12th (Eastern), 36th (Ulster) & 15th (Scottish) Divisions

Charles Arthur Goodman was born in the parish of Marylebone to Charles Frederick Goodman and Eliza (died 18 January 1916). He was aged 19 years and six months and employed as a cleaner when he enlisted for a short engagement of three years at Marylebone on 26 August 1914. He was given the regimental number 87444, and reported at Woolwich the following day. On 31 August he was posted on to the 62nd Brigade, RFA as a Gunner, to 197 Battery (one of three six-gun batteries in the brigade), and presumably then on to 'B' Battery when the Brigade was reorganised into four four-gun batteries. After training, he was appointed by a Board of Officers meeting at Ewshot Camp on 18/19 April 1915 to the duties of a Shoeing Smith in B/62 Brigade RFA. 

He proceeded to France on 30 May 1915 with the Brigade, as part of 12th (Eastern) Division. It joined III Corps on 5 June. Not long afterwards he suffered concussion and a scalp wound due to a kick on the head about 4 July 1915 and was hospitalised via 3 Casualty Clearing Station and 4 Ambulance Train, ending up 13th General Hospital (Boulogne). After this, he appears to have been posted on 12 July to 5c (Reserve) Brigade RFA back in England, via Hospital Ship 'Anglia'. 

After a period of recovery he was then posted on 26 November 1915 to the artillery component of the 36th (Ulster) Division; this was the day that the 153rd Brigade left Bordon Camp for Le Havre via Southampton, with a complement of 25 officers and 734 NCOs and men, Shoeing Smith Goodman possibly amongst them. With the 36th he seems to have served until February 1917, including periods of service with the divisional medium trench mortar batteries and divisional ammunition column. His first service appears to have been with 'B' Battery of 153rd Brigade, staring with a period in billets at Long for most of January and then a move to Lancheres and district where the batteries undertook training and firing practice. It was during this period, on 19 February 1916, that Goodman reverted back to Gunner from Shoeing Smith at his own request. At about this time the Ulster division took over the section of the front line over which it would make its attack on 1 July 1916; from 6 March the batteries were in place around Martinsart and were in operation. On 31 March Gnr Goodman was seemingly transferred to 'Z' or 'Z.36' medium trench mortar battery (slightly paradoxically as some sources have the battery only being formed on 1 June; however the Commander, Royal Artillery 36th Division war diary for 20 March has a Captain C A L Brownlow joining as Trench Mortar Staff Officer on that day, suggesting the nucleus of a future battery organisation). The medium trench mortar of this period fired a 2" rodded 60lb projectile, known to the men as a 'Toffee Apple' or, as in the 36th Divisional History, 'Plum Pudding'.

Certainly by late June the medium batteries were in action, being tasked with wire cutting. 28 June saw a heavy German barrage laid down on Thiepval Wood, leading Cyril Falls, in his 36th Divisional history, to comment "The trenches were in a terrible state, and the men of the medium trench mortar batteries, engaged in cutting the German wire, suffered more even than the Infantry, and earned the admiration of the latter by their devotion to their task".  On 1 July the division attacked the Schwaben Redoubt from their positions at the north-eastern edge of Thiepval Wood in the opening Battle of Albert, Gnr Goodman's Medium Trench Mortar batteries being involved in firing on specific points to complement the planned 3" Stokes Mortar hurricane bombardment and the heavy (9.45") mortars' cooperation with the main barrage 'lifts' until the extent of their range was to be reached. 

Following the Division's move from the Somme after its blooding on 1 and 2 July, Gnr Goodman left the Trench Mortar Battery on 25 July to join HQ of the 154th (CLIV) Brigade. After six weeks he then joined the 36th Divisional Ammunition Column on 12 September 1916, presumably as part of the reorganisation of the divisional Artillery mentioned in the DAC war diary - the Column was involved in preparing winter lines and building horse standings East of Bailleul at the time, a task which, along with constructing accommodation for the men, extended into January 1917. Gnr Goodman remained with the 36th DAC until 14 December when he returned to the trench mortar batteries for a week - they were in action at the time, putting down fire on targets such as La Petite Douve Farm in the Messines sector - until joining the 36th Divisional Ammunition Column again (4th Section) on 21 December. 

On 3 February 1917 he appears to have been posted to [B or D] Battery, LXXIII (73rd) Brigade RFA, 15th (Scottish) Division (again paradoxically, as its own war diary indicates that that Brigade was broken up on 3 December the previous year, upon the reorganisation of 18-pounder batteries from a 4- to a 6-gun basis). At this time the divisional artilery was in the Somme sector. At some point prior to 30 April/4 May 1918 Goodman transferred to LXXI (71st) Brigade, also with 15th (Scottish) Division. This division saw service in 1917 in the Battle of Arras, 9-11 and 23-24 April (first and second Battles of the Scarpe), as well as the Battles of the Pilckem Ridge (31 July to 2 August) and Langemarck (17-18 August, 46th Brigade only) and Fighting for Zevenkote (22 August) during the Third Battle of Ypres. 

In 1918 the division was caught up in the German Spring Offensive, the artillery firing 'counter preparation' and 'assist' schemes prior to involvement in the fighting in the Battle of Bapaume (24 and 25 March) and Battle of Arras (28 March) 1918. Gnr Goodman was wounded in action in mid to late April 1918 (head and leg), being with [10 - possibly a Section number?]/71 Bde, RFA at the time. At this time the Brigade was at Warlus/Arras Cemetery, focusing on day and night harassing fire on the approaches to the enemy line, old battery positions, dugouts etc, including gas shell concentrations and firing on suspected movement. The enemy retaliated on the 9th of the month, subjecting a battery position at Ronville to vigorous gas shelling and periodically used its high velocity guns to shell rearward positions, including the Grande Place in Arras on one or two occasions. The  war diary is fairly silent on casualties but one possibility is in D/71 which, whilst firing an SoS barrage in response to a German raid on 20 April, at 11.10am suffered a premature 'blowing the gun to pieces', and injuring some of the detachment. Gnr Goodman was admitted to [3?] General Hospital, Boulogne on 30 April and then admitted to hospital in the UK on 4 May 1918. Accordingly he appeared on War Office Daily List No.5594 of 17/06/1918, his Next of Kin address being given as Tottenham.

Although of a low medical category owing to his wounds, Gnr Goodman (by now with 2nd Reserve Battery of No.Ia Reserve Brigade at Newcastle) nonetheless volunteered on 1 February 1919 to extend his service to join the Armies of Occupation, and after some time in a Reserve Brigade, was finally discharged in February 1920. He received on discharge a pension of 24/- a week for 26 weeks in consideration of his 60% disabling wounds. Subsequently he sought employment in the Post Office, like his father, Charles (a temporary postman in 1916).