When Medals Reunited New Zealand© was established in Christchurch in mid-2014, within days of going live on the internet, a local man named Nicholas became MRNZ’s very first medal donor. Nicholas personally delivered to me five medals he had accumulated during his younger years. No longer having the interest in these, he wanted to know if they could be returned to the families of the original recipients. In talking to him about his original motivation for acquiring the medals, his interest became very apparent when he happened to mention he was a nephew of the late Sgt. Jack Hinton V.C. (20th Battalion 2NZEF), Nicholas’s mother being the sister of Jack’s wife, nee Mollie Schumacher.
Whilst I had anticipated a slow start to the MRNZ service being still in the throes of devising and testing various systems and procedures to be used as research methodology, I decided that the immediate focus would be on World War 1 medals named to New Zealanders as these, unlike World War 2 medals, were named. Nicholas had bought five medals, four of First World War vintage including two named to Royal Navy sailors, plus one to a British Army Service Corps soldier and one to an Auckland Infantry Battalion (9th Reinforcements) soldier. The fifth medal was a Second World War, George VI New Zealand Memorial Cross inscribed with the name: 24033 PTE. R. GOODING.
A Memorial Cross was sent/given to the next of kin (mainly mothers and daughters) of those who had been killed or died during World War 2. The cross Nicholas had bought to me was in excellent, unused condition complete with its original neck ribbon. To date three of Nicholas’s medals have been returned to descendants – a Royal Navy and the Auckland Infantry Battalion medals, and now the Memorial Cross.
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Whilst medals awarded to British servicemen or women, or those who have moved elsewhere in the world since the medals were issued, generally take longer to locate a descendant. Nicholas’s handful of medals has born this out however it also demonstrates that we never give up on any case if there is any chance that a connection can be found. As with any medal we have difficulty in finding a descendant for, a regular review of records and website material has proven time and again that new information is being regularly added which can often provide a new lead that can result in a successful return. Such was the case with Robert Gooding’s Memorial Cross. After the initial research had resulted in a series of dead ends, I put this case on the ‘back-burner’ pending the availability of some new information. When Mike, one of our part-time researchers from the deep south was given the case to review recently, he began his search with Charles and Mary Gooding’s first generation of children to ascertain who had lived longest.
It is usual when looking for offspring connections to start with the deaths of successive generations in ascending order, i.e., to start with the most recent deaths of the current generation, and then work backwards in time. As Joan [Joanne Gooding] Doyle had died in 1952, and the next two siblings Jessie Marshal [Gooding] Snow and Mary [Gooding] Keir had died in Nelson in 1979 and 1976 respectively, that left only Susan [Gooding] Livingston, former nurse and midwife who lived on into her second century and died in 2002 at the age of 101, as the longest lived. The problem for me was that Susan and her husband Norman, who had died at age 92, did not have a family! During Mike’s review of the first generation of Gooding siblings, he discovered a piece of the puzzle which clearly identified the priority of entitlement for Robert Gooding’s memorial cross.
Wales to Westland
Charles Samuel Gooding was born in Newport, Wales in 1857 to Collier (coal miner) George GOODING and his wife Susanna Barbara Alma BULL. Charles had followed his father into the Welsh coal mines before emigrating to NZ in the early 1880s, arriving at Lyttelton and then working his way across to the West Coast to engage in the work he knew best, mining coal.
Burnett’s Face
Initially residing in Westport, Charles soon had work at the mine known as Burnett’s Face which was located on the Denniston Plateau 2,100 feet above sea level. Named for R. B. Denniston, the manager of this first major mine on the West Coast. The plateau stretched north-south for 18 kilometers. After high-quality bituminous coal was found in 1860 at Burnett’s Face (2.5 kilometres from Denniston, mining actually began in 1886. Thick seams of the coal were also found at several nearby localities which led to additional mines being opened, the Buller coalfield eventually extending for more than 30 kilometres from Denniston to Seddonville. The Burnett’s Face settlement began in 1886, and the last resident left in 1956.
Denniston itself was 15 kilometres east of Westport and had a combined population (Denniston and Burnett’s Face) in 1901 of approximately 212, however by 1911, it had the largest population of any mine peaking at 1,470 miners, tradesmen and their families all living on the Plateau.
Coal from Burnett’s Face was transported by a cable rope-road to the Denniston brake head where it was transferred into hoppers, which in turn filled the coal trucks on a cable-railway before they descended the perilously steep Denniston Incline. The terminal for the coal was Conns Creek, with the railway branch line junction at Waimangaroa. The Incline was 548 meters long over a distance of just 1,670 meters with a gradient that was 1 in 1.25 (80%) in some parts. The Incline for many years was also the only means of getting miners, families, their belongings, equipment and supplies to and from the Plateau. In 1884, a foot track to the Plateau was completed, an arduous climb at best and one not for the faint hearted! Eventually this was widened to accommodate horse drawn vehicle access which ended the dangerous travel on the Incline in filthy coal trucks.
In 1885, Charles Samuel Gooding was married in Westport to a Scottish lady, Mary Walker MARSHALL who hailed from Bathgate in Midlothian. Within a year the Gooding’s had moved from Westport onto the Plateau where Charles was predominantly employed at Burnett’s Face over the next three to four years. Even a hardy Scot of Mary Gooding’s ilk would have found it tough managing a household in the somewhat primitive conditions of Denniston, exacerbated by extremes of temperature bought about by the altitude.
The Gooding’s first child, Harry George Gooding, had been born in Westport in 1886 but sadly was to lose his life in January 1904 when, as a 17 year old, according to witnesses had attempted to swim across the Ngakawau River, had become exhausted when about halfway across, and sank. Despite an extensive boat search his body was never found.
Harry’s brother, Robert Marshall Gooding born in 1887 was the only Gooding child to be born on the Denniston Plateau. By 1889, Charles Snr. had moved his family from Denniston back down to sea level to Waimangaroa, a small settlement 17 kilometres north of Westport.
In 1890 the Gooding’s were on the move again, north of Granity to Ngawakau where son Charles Gooding [Jnr] was born in the same year. Things obviously did not go well for Charles at the mine over the next few years as he was adjudged to be Bankrupt in 1897.
The only bright spot for Charles and Mary may have been the birth of four girls to complete their family: Joanna “Joan” Walker [Gooding] DOYLE (1889-1952), Susan [Gooding] LIVINGSTON (1899-1979), Jessie Marshall [Gooding] SNOW (1900-2002), and last was Mary [Gooding] KEIR (1902-1976). A fifth, Susanna GOODING (1891-1892) died within months of her birth.
Ngakawau is on the south bank of the Ngakawau River while the settlement of Hector occupies the north bank. While at Ngakawau, Charles Gooding Snr. had obtained a license in 1898 to cut timber from several sections of land at Hector, an preparation to occupy the land. He had also applied in 1900 for another occupation license for 20 acres of land at Ngakawau in 1900 however this was denied. The council later reversed its decision revoking his license to occupy the Hector land siting its desire to cut the land up into allotments for residential sites. The drowning of the Gooding’s son Harry at Granity in 1904 was the last straw for the Gooding’s and the left Ngakawau for the remote Tasman settlement at Patarau, the first area to be settled on the Tai Tapu Coast, roughly 30 kilometres south of Farewell Spit near the Whanganui Inlet (also known as Westhaven).
Prouse & Saunders had built a flax mill at Patarau in 1904, and in 1909 had also built a large sawmill on the banks of the Mangarakau River. Charles laboured at both of the mills as well as felling timber. He also helped to build the extensive bush railway needed to haul the felled trees to the mill. Access to and from Westhaven was by boat only with the majority of the milled timber being shipped to Nelson. While Charles worked at the mills or in the bush, Mary Gooding still with three children under ten at home, took over the running of an accommodation house at Parkeston on the Mangarakau River. ‘Gooding’s Boarding House’ as it was called, was situated about 47 kilometres west of Collingwood as the crow flies.
Brunnerton ~ Nelson ~ Greymouth
In 1906 Charles decided to return to coal mining and a job at the Brunner state coal mine, ten kilometres north of Greymouth up the Grey River. Once established, Mary gave up the boarding house at Parkeston and moved down to Brunnerton with the children. In July 1907, a fire at Brunnerton in a neighbour’s house next to the Gooding’s had fortunately been extinguished sparing the Gooding’s however the following day, smouldering remains were re-ignited in the wind claiming two more houses before being bought under control, one of these was Gooding’s house. In this they lost everything (and they were not insured) except for a few items the neighbour’s had managed to salvage from the inferno.
The loss of their house and belongings prompted yet another change in direction for the Gooding family. Charles Snr. successfully applied to be the Licensee of the (new) Wakatu Hotel in Nelson, on the corner of Bridge and Collingwood Streets (where it still sits today). Built in 1866 for H.V. Phillips’ Beehive Stores, the building was first licensed as a hotel in 1900 (Fred Vause) with the Gooding’s first taking over the license in 1907. Here ‘mine hosts’ remained on and off for the next 12 years whilst Charles Gooding Jnr answered the call and volunteered for war service.**
In Sep 1918, Charles again re-applied for the Wakatu’s license from the outgoing publican Walter Sowman. Barely five weeks later, Charles was facing a prosecution for serving an under age 16 year old lad on the premises. It was however a unique occasion, being 1st November 1918, a day when the bar was packed with people and a party in full swing to celebrate the final surrender of Turkey. Under these unique circumstances, the magistrate let Charles off with a nominal fine of 10 shillings ($1.00). In May 1919, Mary was granted a separation order against Charles, the evidence showing he was “intemperate in his habits and abusive when drunk.” In July, Charles arranged for the license to be transferred to his wife Mary who continued to run the hotel with her daughters, and whose son,, Charles Gooding Jnr., would soon be joining them on his return from the war. Charles went back to Greymouth and took a labouring job at Otira. Mary became the licensee briefly in 1921 of the Rising Sun Hotel in Waimea Road before reconciling with Charles and moving to Otira. By July 1923, Charles had become the licensee of the Golden Eagle Hotel in Greymouth however the Gooding’s issues had not wholly been resolved and they left after six months. In December the license of the Golden Eagle was transferred to Mrs Rathbon. The Gooding’s returned to Nelson however Mary remained unhappy with their circumstances. She petitioned for and was granted a separation order from Charles in April 1924, in spite of his non-appearance in court. Charles once again re-applied for the Rising Sun’s license in May 1924 which he held for the next two years, finally surrendering his license as a publican to a Mr Wheatley in March 1926.
The Gooding’s retirement address was shown as 4 Milton Street in Nelson, both names being listed. It is assumed Charles and Mary co-habited for their remaining years together. Sadly their final years were blighted by another death in the family, their 26 year old grandson Robert Gooding [Jnr] was Killed in Action in Nov 1941 during the North African campaign. Mary Gooding (79) died eight months later in July 1942 and her husband Charles Samuel (84) in December 1944. Both are buried together in the Wakapuaka Cemetery at Atawhai, Nelson.
Note: ** 2/2136 Gunner Charles Gooding [Jnr], NZ Field Artillery. Like his father, Charles Jnr was also a Miner at Burnett’s Face in Denniston at the time he volunteered for service overseas. Enlisted on 14 April 1915 at the age of 24 yrs 9 mths, Charles served with the 3rd and 9th Batteries, NZFA in Egypt, France and Belgium. Other than contracting some mild ailments, Charles had a trouble free tour of duty and returned home unscathed. He was discharged from the NZEF on 14 May 1919 after 4 years 28 days overseas. On his return he became a ship’s engineer for the Nelson based Anchor Shipping & Foundry Company (later Union Steam Ship Co). Charles Gooding [Jnr] eventually finished up living in Auckland where he died on 18 Aug 1953 at the age of 63.
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Gooding’s growing up
By about 1908, when Charles and Mary had gone to live in Waimangaroa, their two oldest children Elsie and Robert remained in Westport and established their independence. Joanne had married, while Robert Marshall Gooding was employed as an Assistant Librarian at the Westport Public Library. In 1910 Robert then 23, had secured a position with the Westport Borough Council as the Inspector of Nuisances, later known as the Sanitary Inspector, and later still, the Public Health Inspector. The Inspector was responsible for keeping the town clean, sanitary and safe – a very busy job in those days! The Inspector could take action on anything that impinged upon public health or safety (a popular scam of the day was watering down milk) including bringing prosecutions against offenders when warranted. With a position of responsibility, prospects and a secure income, Robert Gooding Snr married Westport born Ellen May RAE (b1890) in 1913. A daughter Elsie May Gooding born the same year was followed by a son, Robert “Bob” Gooding in 1914. A second son, John Gooding had presented pregnancy problems for Ellen who went to Nelson to have the child, where Robert Snr’s parents Charles and Mary, then licensees of the Wakatu Hotel on Collingwood Street, could support her through the birth. John was born on August 3rd, 1915 however did not survive and died the following day. Tragically, Ellen also succumbed to the birth complications and died a day later on 5 August 1915. Both were buried together in the Orowaiti Cemetery, Westport.
Robert Marshall Gooding retained his position as the Health Inspector at Westport, with the assistance of family and friends to care for his two surviving children.
In May 1921, Robert re-married widow Revena Elizabeth Mary DONALDSON (1885-1978) nee Kirkwood (listed in the census as Mary Elizabeth). Revena had been previously married in 1903 but in 1919 her husband William had died as a result of an accident at the Griffiths Bros. Flax Mill at Birchfield (between Waimangaroa and Granity). William apparently had crawled under the floor of the mill to tighten some drive belts and inadvertently struck his head, just behind his ear, on a bolt that was protruding from the floor. He complained for some weeks after the knock of continual pain which did not ease. William died suddenly several months later. The post mortem attributed the cause to be an abscess that had developed in his skull occasioned by the blow from the bolt and the subsequent swelling of his brain.
Revena had four children from her former marriage, two who were in their twenties at the time she married Robert, and two teenagers still living at home. Revena and Robert’s first child, James Marshall Gooding (1924-1977), was born at Westport in 1924 prior to Robert taking up an appointment with the Health Department in 1925. It was in Taumaranui their second child, Patricia Mary Gooding was born in 1925 but sadly, Patricia died of illness as a teenager in 1941. By 1928, Robert’s work as Health Inspector had taken him and his family back to Taranaki, and a rural house not far from his parents, at 41 Mountain Road, Eltham. Robert’s last appointment as Heath Inspector was about 1940 when he was transferred to in the Hawkes Bay. The Gooding’s remained in their Tawhara Road home at Wairoa for almost ten years until Robert retired about mid-1949. Leaving Wairoa, Robert and Revena returned to their Mountain Road home in Eltham where they would spend their remaining days.
Robert’s two oldest children Elsie and Bob, by this time had begun their own working lives. Before she married, Elsie provided domestic service to the McGavan family whom she lived with in Hawera, later moving with the family to Whangarei, Northland and Otamarakau, Pukehina on the southern Bay of Plenty coast. Brother Robert (Jnr) started work as a labourer on local farms when the Gooding’s moved to Wairoa. Immediately before the war, he h ad been employed as a factory worker at the Matangi Dairy Factory on the outskirts of Hamilton.
In later life, Elsie and Robert became very close, a bond that in all probability had resulted from the early loss of their mother and baby brother John. Tragedy however for this brother and sister, would revisit them.
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Robert Gooding [Jnr]
Robert Gooding [Jnr], or ‘Bob’ as he was universally known, had begun his primary schooling in Westport. When his father was transferred to Wairoa, Bob’s primary education continued at the Pukehina Native School where most of the school’s small student roll (10), were local Maori. Robert in fact was the only non-Maori for several periods during his time at the school. Nothing much has changed even today, save for the wider mix of student ethnicities. The school roll in 2023 stood at twenty three.
Murder in Hawera
After the Gooding’s moved to Eltham, young Bob was caught up in a rather unpleasant situation when as a lad of 15 he was called to give evidence in a Hawera murder case. Such was the public interest in the case it was rarely far from front page news in 1931.
A Hindu fruiterer, Nana “David” Chhiba (39), had a fruit shop in Main Street, Hawera. He had been in business in Hawera for some 15 years and was by all accounts a pleasant man who lived a quite life. Chhiba apparently was a man of some means having owned several High Street premises in the town in the years he had been in Hawera and in Whanganui prior to that. With relatives in both Stratford and Wanganui, Chhiba’s wife and daughter had remained in Bombay, India while he remunerated them with the income he earned from his business. This is not an uncommon practice even today.
Before gaining work as a Farm Hand, young Bob Gooding had had a job working for Chhiba in the fruit shop. In July 1931, a man named Walter John Tinsley (25), a married man and a Baker from Masterton who had recently started working at a bakery near the fruit shop, was put on trial for the murder of Chhiba. Tinsley, who boarded at the nearby Royal Hotel, had been identified as being in Chhiba’s shop buying fruit at about 11.00pm on Saturday, 31 January. Another lad working at the shop when questioned in court said that he had left around 11.00 p.m. leaving only Bob Gooding and Chhiba in the shop, both the back and front doors being still open when he left. The lad was also asked if Chhiba had ever made any improper suggestions to him to which he replied ‘Yes’ and that he had ‘kicked at him and refused to do what he wished’. The lad also said that he didn’t think the shop was open long after he left, and that Chhiba sometimes had a beer or stout before leaving.
Bob who had been helping out that night, testified the hat he had left by about 11.15 p.m. and had seen the tomahawk by the back wall. Bob also confirmed that no improper suggestions had been made by Chhiba to him. The local constable after receiving a message the following day (Feb 1st) that the shop was uncharacteristically closed, went to check it about 10.00 a.m. The constable checked the windows and doors at the front and rear of the shop, were secure. He noticed nothing unusual other than that a light had been left on in a back room – no cause for concern. He repeated the check after dark – no change. Directed by his superiors to carry out a second check after dark, the constable found the backdoor unlocked and Chhiba dead on the floor in the lit room with a coir mat covering his mutilated head.
Tinsley became the prime suspect and was jailed until the trial was convened. The nub of the evidence was that Tinsley had been seen in the shop late at night just before closing time, and had on other occasions allegedly suggested that Hindus should not be allowed into the country. Tinsley also worked and lived in close proximity to the fruit shop. Later, s search of his hotel accommodation produced a bloodstained coat for which he claimed an alibi of stains from meat that he had bought at a local abattoir. A guilty verdict seemed assured however when put before the New Plymouth Grand Jury, they thought differently. In August, they returned a finding of “no bill” meaning they could not reach a conclusive verdict of guilt or innocence. Accordingly Tinsley had to be discharged. In 1933 he petitioned Parliament for compensation and was awarded £2000 (approx. NZ$339,000 today) for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The murder remains unsolved. By the slimmest of margins, Bob Gooding had avoided being caught up, or worse, accused of Nana Chhiba’s murder!
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War service
In 1938 Bob Gooding was working at the Matangi Dairy Factory, 10 kilometres south-east of Hamilton. As Britain and her allies appeared to be on a collision course for possible hostilities in Europe, by mid-1938, a national manpower register was compiled of men between 18 and 60. Voluntary recruiting for the army commenced on 13 September 1939 for men between the ages of 21 and 45. Bob Gooding volunteered without hesitation to join the Expeditionary Force (2NZEF).
24033 Private Robert GOODING was 24 years of age when he was enrolled and attested as an Infantryman at Gisborne in July 1940 and assigned to ‘B’ Company of the 24th (Auckland) Infantry Battalion.
The 24th (NZ Infantry) Battalion was formed on 1 February 1940 at the Narrow Neck Military Camp, from personnel drawn largely from the Auckland region. It was to be the first of eleven battalions that would form the New Zealand Division in North Africa. The Division would be transported by sea in three echelons, the 24th Battalion scheduled to sail in the Third Echelon. Once in North Africa, 2NZEF became the 6th NZ Infantry Brigade of the 2nd New Zealand Division. With an establishment of around 780 men, the each battalion consisted op four rifle companies, designated A through to D, E – H, etc. each with a Headquarters Company. The rifle companies were organised along provincial lines; men from the Auckland region were generally placed in A Company, while those from the Hauraki, North Auckland and Waikato were assigned to B, C, and D Companies respectively. The 6th Infantry Brigade took part in most of the major conflicts in Greece, North Africa and Italy during the next five years. When hostilities concluded, 24 Battalion was disbanded in December 1945.
Following their initial military training at Narrow Neck Military Camp, the battalion embarked on the Empress of Japan for Egypt on 28 August 1940. Arriving in the Middle East on 29 September, the troops were entrained for the 2NZEF base at Maadi Camp, some 12 kilometres south of Cairo. The battalion drilled and practiced field tactics for the next several months, escalating to brigade level exercises by the end of the year.
The British Government anticipated an invasion of Greece by the Germans in 1941 and decided to send troops to support the Greeks. The 2nd New Zealand Division was one of a number of Allied divisions dispatched to Greece in early March 1941. The 24th Battalion departed Egypt over the period 13 to 15 March and on arriving in Greece, began to move north. The 6th (NZ) Infantry Brigade was tasked with the defence of the coastal portion of the Aliakmon Line in northern Greece, with the 24th Battalion preparing and manning the defences around the village of Skala Elevtherokhorion. In May, as German parachute troops began landing on the Isthmus of Corinth, 24 Battalion withdrew and took up defensive positions, the majority around Tripoli while approximately four platoons (130 men +/-) had withdrawn to Kalamata. Those who went to Kalamata were captured and made POWs while the remainder of 24 Battalion withdrew to Monemvasia where they were extracted by three British warships, transported to Souda Bay where the majority were transferred to a troop transport. The ships eventually reached Port Said, Alexandria and the remnants of 24 Battalion conveyed to Helwan, north-west of Cairo to be rested, re-equipped and reinforcements added to bring the battalion back up to fighting strength.
North Africa
After this period of refitting, disrupted by a move to the Suez Canal to defend a possible attack (which did not eventuate), 24 Battalion moved to the ‘Baggush Box’ in September 1941. The Box was a British built Army field fortification in the Western Desert, 56 kilometres east of Mersa Matruh on the Mediterranean coast. Here the battalion underwent training in desert warfare in preparation for its role in the upcoming Operation Crusader, an operation to among other things lift the ‘Siege of Tobruk’. The siege had begun on 10 April 1941 after Allied elements (mostly 9th Australian Division troops) garrisoned at the Tobruk port to deny Axis forces its use, had been surrounded by the German-Italian Army landed in North Africa under command of General Irwin Rommell.
Sidi Rezegh
In November, the 6th Brigade moved to its starting positions in Libya for the operation, to be held in reserve while the initial part of the offensive commenced. The brigade entered Op Crusader on 21 November with 24 Battalion leading the brigade advance to Bir el Hariga while the 4th Brigade targeted the Bardia-Tobruk highway, and the 5th Brigade the area around Bardia and Sollum. However the following day, 6 Brigade’s course was altered and it was ordered to advance to Point 175, a small rise just south of the Trigh Capuzzo, a desert track east of Sidi Rezegh, and set up a perimeter. The Battalion was then to make contact with the 5th South African Brigade at Sidi Rezegh who were in some difficulty.
Leaving early in the morning of 23 November, the battalion commander (Lt-Col Shuttleworth) reached the appropriate waypoint by dawn. However the brigade’s other two battalions (25 and 26) had bivouacked in the wrong area, in a wadi rather than along the ridge on which 24 Battalion had been advancing. Taking his battalion into the wadi from one end, Shuttleworth was confronted by elements of Rommel’s Afrika Korps (infantry and tanks) moving into the wadi from the other end. This initiated a battle in which the battalion, having appreciated the situation more quickly than the enemy, took 200 German and Italian prisoners of war and interned them in makeshift, barbed wire cages.
The 6th Brigade moved on quickly to reach Point 175 which marked the start of the Sidi Rezegh escarpment, just 40 kilometres from Tobruk. Arriving a few hours after their initial contact with the enemy earlier in the morning, the found that Point 175 was held by the Germans and 25 Battalion making its first attempt to capture the Point. Meanwhile, 26 Battalion sought to make contact with the South Africans.
The 24th Battalion was being held in Reserve but Shuttleworth. Two companies of the battalion were soon called upon to reinforce the attack by 25 Battalion. It was during this exchange that 26 year old Private Bob Gooding was Killed in Action on November 25th. The remaining two companies were brought forward that evening to help secure what little ground 25 Battalion had won. Despite, 24 Battalion’s B Company capturing the summit of Point 175 the following day, it was not until 27 November that the Sidi Rezegh escarpment was under the control of the New Zealanders. The strength 24th Battalion however had by then been whittled down to just 163 men. Rommel’s 15th Panzer Division with its superior mobility, firepower, artillery and infantry quickly overran the NZ position in the following days. By 30 November the 6th Brigade was surrounded. Nearly 300 soldiers of the 24th Battalion were captured, and another 100 killed or died of wounds.
After successfully repelling several enemy ground attacks and surviving random aerial bombardments while three reliefs of personnel were made both to and from Tobruk, the besieged garrison of Axis forces (“Rats of Tobruk”) held firm and continued to deny access to this critical supply route until the siege was finally lifted on 27 November by the combined elements of the Eighth Army.
Sources: NZETC.victoria.an.nz; Wikipedia; TeAra.govt.nz; nzhistory.govt.nz
Private Robert Gooding’s remains lie somewhere in the Western Desert near Sidi Rezegh together with the many others who were killed and have no known grave simply because of the overwhelming shell fire from German artillery and tanks that was bought to bear on 24 Battalion’s position.
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Medals: 1939/45 Star, Africa Star (8th Army clasp), War Medal 1939/45, NZ War Service Medal + NZ Memorial Cross and Memorial Scroll.
Service Overseas: 28 Aug 1940 – 25 Nov 1941
Total 2NZEF Service: Jul 1940 – 25 Nov 1941
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Private Robert Gooding’s death along with others from 24 Battalion who have no known graves, are commemorated on the Alamein Memorial (Robert on Column 103) which forms the entrance of the El Alamein War Cemetery in Libya. He is also remembered on the grave of his 14 year old sister Patricia who died in 17 April 1941, and who lies in the Wairoa Cemetery, Hawkes Bay.
Pte. Bob Gooding is also remembered at the Pukehina (Native) School. A war memorial flagstaff especially carved by Kaka Niao and unveiled at Pukehina Native School on 30 October 1946, bears the names of eight former pupils on the Roll of Honour who laid down their lives: M. Ngawhika, V. Woisin, H. Te Kuru, I. Clark, P. O’Callaghan, R. Gooding, W. Whareiatu, K. Hona, and F. Evans.
At the foot of the flagstaff is a bronze plaque inscribed: ‘He tohu whakamahara / mo / nga hoia o tenei takewa / I hingaki te pakanga / I nga tau / 1939-1945 / Erected to the memory / of / servicemen from this district / who made the supreme sacrifice / in World War II / 1939-1945/ “Lest we forget”.
Reference: ‘War memorial unveiled at Pukehina Native School‘, Te Puke Times, 1/11/1946, p. 2;Te Puke: Nga Tangata Me Nga Wahi, People and Places, ed. Christine Clement, Lynne Robertson, Maree Lewis, Te Puke, 2007, p. 261; Pukehina School website
‘Lest We Forget’
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The home front
The news of Bob Gooding’s death reached his father while living in Wairoa. One can only imagine what a crushing blow it must have been for Robert Marshall Gooding and the wider Gooding family, particularly as Robert (snr) had now lost his only surviving son from his sad and brief marriage to Ellen. Bob’s sister Elsie being very fond of her brother, as he was of her, was utterly devastated at this news and was never quite able to get over the loss of her dear brother. Apart from the obligatory letters of condolence from Bob’s commanding officer, company commander, and a telegram from the Defence Minister, the Memorial Cross was forwarded to Robert Gooding’s mother father Robert Snr. together with an accompanying Memorial Certificate, and a token of acknowledgement by the NZ Government for Pte. Gooding’s death in the service of his country. World War 2 campaign medals for service were not made available to veterans until after 1948 by which time the designs and entitlement regulations were finalised. Medals were available upon application by veterans, from 1948-1952. The decision to not post or present medals to veterans and, unlike WW1 medals the WW2 medals were to be issued un-named, caused a furore among veterans with many expressing disgust and rejecting any opportunity to claim their medals. Accordingly, many still remain unclaimed to this day.
Cross returned
My original search for Gooding descendants in Christchurch had bogged down with the family’s movements on the West Coast. Frequent moves to remote locations, particularly in the north-west corner of the South Island, highlighted a lack of records for the area in the early days of last century. Geographical boundaries and place names did not necessarily accord with what is recognised today and indeed some no longer existed, such as Parkeston. I was also beset with duplication. Who would have believed there was more than one ‘Elsie May Gooding’ in existence in this part of the world and during the same time period – in both New Zealand and Australia! This was going to b a lengthy search and what saw this case put on the back burner.
Since Mike began reviewing the case again this year, three significant changes had occurred. Some of the Gooding family trees information had been updated (we depend fairly heavily on these for guidance), Ancestry record access had been extended from 1981 to 2010 (making later birth and marriage information available), while by chance I had found an oral history recorded by Susan Gooding (1900-2002) before her death. From the former Mike identified that Robert Gooding’s sister Elsie May who had married John Roy Babbage, had had a family.
In 1935, spinster Elsie Gooding (22) was living with her brother Bob at Otamarakau, Te Puke where he worked as a Labourer. Prior to WW2, Elsie married Eltham born Farmer John Roy BABBAGE (1910-1989) at Tauranga in 1937. John, the youngest of seven Babbage siblings (four sisters and three brothers**) had been a share-milker in both Eltham and the Patea district until moving to the Hauraki (Bay of Plenty) district in the mid-1930s. After their marriage John and Elsie continued to share-milk at Otamarakau and at Waiterimu, Elsie taking time out in the early years of the war to give birth to their son, Barry. Over the next 30 years, John built up dairy herds on farms they owned at Taupiri and at Katikati.
In 1961, after a lifetime of dairy farming, John and Elsie decided it was time to move off the farm and ease into semi-retirement by moving to suburban Otemoetai in Tauranga. Being a man used to being up with the larks for milking most of his life, John continued to work variously at the local cement works and at a timber mill. For the last few years of his working life John worked for the city council as a Gardener. This move ensured he remained in his happy place – outdoors and productive, until old age finally enforced his complete retirement in the 1970s.
Note ** John Babbage’s eldest brother was 61982 Rifleman Frederick Richard George “Dick” Babbage. Born at Fielding on 12 Jul 1896, Fred was also a Farmer who at the age of 22 was enlisted as a reinforcements Rifleman in the NZ Rifle Brigade. Embarking with the 31st Reinforcement draft from Wellington in August 1917, Fred was placed in the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade. On 30 October 1918 during the NZ Division’s final 100 day advance through the Hindenburg Line, Le Quesnoy and the Mormal Forest in northern France, Dick Babbage was fatally wounded near Le Cateau, just eleven days short of the war’s official ending – Armistice.
John Babbage’s next eldest brother, Stanley James Babbage, also a Farmer had died in Hawera in 1952 at the relatively young age of 51 years. Ironically, like the Gooding’s, death had also taken the Babbage’s Scottish born mother, Mary Laird Babbage (nee Rankin) who was not yet fifty when she died at Eltham in 1921, John Roy being only eleven at the time.
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John and Elsie Babbage’s son, Barry John Babbage born in 1940, was their only child. Barry was blessed with a mechanical and analytical bent becoming a successful Electronic Design engineer who worked for many years in NZ television industry. Now retired to the Bay of Plenty, Barry and Annabelle’s sons will eventually inherit Robert Gooding’s medals from their father and preserve the tradition of remembrance of their grand uncle Robert Gooding.
We could not have wished for a more suited descendant to be the perpetual guardian of Robert Gooding’s memorial cross than his nephew Barry, the most direct and only living descendant of Bob’s beloved sister Elsie [Gooding] Babbage. Barry recalled his mother’s description of his uncle Bob, saying he had been an easy going man, a very likeable fellow who was respectful and respected. Elsie’s fondness of her brother Bob was self-evident as she deeply mourned his death until the day of her death in Tauranga on 6 August 2003 at the age of 91. Elsie’s husband John had predeceased her in June 1989.
Barry is now the proud owner of his uncle Bob Gooding’s memorial cross and very kindly sent MRNZ a photographic copy of the only known picture of Private Bob Gooding, the painting (above) he and Annabelle have displayed in their home. Since this story was first published, Bob Gooding’s four campaign medals have been located to be reunited with the Memorial Cross. These treasured family mementos will be proudly worn on NZ’s national days of remembrance to honour the service and sacrifice of the Babbage’s WW2 ancestor – 24033 Private Robert Gooding, 24 (NZ) Battalion, 2NZEF.
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Grateful thanks to Nicholas for contributing this Memorial Cross (and medals) for which the Babbage (Gooding) family are most thankful for its return.
The reunited medal tally is now 498.