Edward George Goodenough was born in Leverstock Green near Hemel Hempstead on Thursday, 19th May 1892 and baptised in Holy Trinity Church in the village on Sunday, 10th July in the same year. He was the fourth child born to Frank Joseph Goodenough and Eliza Tarbox who had six other children: Catherine, Ethel and Ada, all older and Ruth, James and Hulbert. Catherine his oldest sister died shortly after birth in 1885.

His mother Eliza died a year before Edward fell in the Great War when she was fifty-one years old.

The Goodenough family lived in New Cottage, Bennetts End close to Leverstock Green and it was here that Edward grew up. His father Frank worked as a ‘Brickmaker’ in the nearby Acorn brickworks but when Edward went to work, like so many from the Hemel Hempstead area, he joined John Dickinson and Co. Limited in Apsley Mills. He was employed initially in the Envelope Department but when he left to enlist, he had moved to the Book Department.

Edward was a keen sportsman and often turned out for both Leverstock Green and Dickinsons Book Department football teams.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914, Edward was amongst the first 100 men to attest at Hemel Hempstead in the last two weeks of the month. He enlisted with the Army Cyclist Corps and was sent for basic training. Seven months after enlisting he went to France on 24th March 1915 and was posted to the 8th Divisional ACC under the direct command of Divisional HQ.

The ACC was a specialist mounted unit and Edward’s duties were mainly in reconnaissance, communications and offering mobile fire power. As the war progressed more and more of his time would have involved trench works and manual labour.

He arrived with the 8th Division shortly after the Battle of Neuve Chappelle when casualties were high and in May he was at The Battle of Aubers Ridge. This was followed by

the action of Bois Grenier which was a diversionary attack coinciding with the Battle of Loos in September.

The following year in May 1916, the divisional cyclist companies were withdrawn to form a cyclist battalion for each Corps Headquarters and at this point Edward was transferred along with seventy-six other cyclists to 2nd Battalion Princess Charlotte of Wales (Royal Berkshire) Regiment as it made preparations for the start of the Somme Offensive.

Only five weeks after joining his new unit Edward went into action on the 1st July 1916, the fateful and appallingly costly first day of the Battle of the Somme. By the close of the first day of the battle, the Berkshires had lost almost half of their fighting strength and sadly Edward was among the almost 300 men killed in action.

He died on Saturday, 1st July 1916.

Edward is commemorated on the John Dickinson and Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley End where he worked before, he went to war.

Edward is Remembered with Honour on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France where his named is engraved on Pier and Face 11D.

He was 24 years old when he died.

Edward was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.