Henry Gooding

Born in 1874, son of Thomas Goodin/Gooding, labourer on railway, from Shotover and Ann from Wheatley, who were living at Blenheim, Wheatley in 1891, when Henry was a farm labourer. He joined the Oxford Light Infantry on 23 January 1893, i.e. as a regular soldier, and was promoted Corporal on 13 August 1900. He served in India and South Africa, the latter including the relief of Kimberley, and the battle of Driefontein, and was awarded the King's South African medal and star. He was discharged from service on 22 January 1909 on completion of a sixteen-year engagement. On 16 February 1911 he left England on the steamship Themistocles, travelling to Melbourne, Australia, where he became a sheep farmer. At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces and was wounded, eventually returning to Wheatley, where he lived on Station Road. He died of tuberculosis in 1924 and is buried in Wheatley churchyard. See also references to him in the Wheatley in a World at War chapter.