Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/04/1916

Date of Discharge

11/04/1919

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

22/10/1896

Place of Birth

Williamsdale ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Coromandel Street, Goulburn NSW (previously Williamsdale ACT)

Occupation

Boundary rider

Next of Kin

Mary Ann Goodwin (mother), Coromandel Street, Goulburn NSW

Service Number

2662

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

56 Battalion AIF

Goulburn War Memorial & Museum, Rocky Hill

Alexander Goodwin was born in Williamsdale at the southern end of the ACT. He arrived in France at the beginning of 1917 but spent most of the next few months in hospital before joining the 56th Battalion in the front line at Bullecourt at the end of April. A few weeks later he suffered shell shock during the Second Battle of Bullecourt. He was wounded a second time during a mustard gas attack on his unit's position on Broodseinde ridge east of Ypres (probably in the same gas attack that wounded his brother Phillip) but rejoined them in time to man the line at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918. Goodwin was wounded a third time, suffering shell concussion during the attack on Peronne on 1 September 1918. He returned to Australia four months later.

Alexander Goodwin served with the 2nd Garrison Battalion in World War 2. His address at the time was in Bankstown in Sydney.

Two of his older brothers also enlisted in World War 1. James Goodwin served with the 55th Battalion and was killed in action at Polygon Wood on 24 September 1917. Phillip Goodwin also served with the 56th Battalion and was also wounded three times. James appears on the Michelago Public School Roll of Honour and Phillip is referred to in a newspaper report about Michelago in 1907 and went to school at Williamsdale. Their father James worked on the railways as a fettler from about the mid 1890s to 1902 when the family moved to Crookwell. They eventually moved to Goulburn. Alexander Goodwin died in the Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney on 25 February 1958, survived by his wife (whom he married in 1922) and six children.

Description - height 5 feet 10 inches, weight 145 pounds, chest 32-34 inches, dark complexion, blue eyes, black hair, Catholic.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Sydney Morning Herald - 27 February 1958