[BITList] Sir William Goodenough. RN

[John Feltham]

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Goodenough, Sir  William Edmund  (1867-1945), naval officer, was born on 2 June 1867 in lodgings on the Hard, Portsmouth, the second of the two sons of Captain James Graham Goodenough  (1830-1875) and his wife, Victoria Henrietta Hamilton (d. 1917). His father became commodore and senior officer of the Australia station and was killed by natives in the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific Ocean in 1875. His mother's brother became tenth Lord Belhaven and Stenton, and William John Hamilton was her father. F. C. Goodenough, the banker, was a first cousin. Goodenough went to the Britannia as a naval cadet in January 1880, and in December 1881 joined the Northampton on the North America and West Indies station, being promoted midshipman in October 1882. He remained in her for over four years, and then joined the Calypso (training squadron). After promotion to sub-lieutenant in October 1886 he went to the Excellent gunnery school.

From March 1888 to May 1889 Goodenough served in the Raleigh, Cape of Good Hope station, with a short period as acting lieutenant in the Brisk. He was then sent home to take up appointment as sub-lieutenant in the Victoria and Albert and was promoted to lieutenant in August 1889.

Over the next eleven years Goodenough served in the Trafalgar, the Surprise (commander-in-chief's yacht), both in the Mediterranean, and the Hermione, China station. In June 1900 he was promoted commander in the Resolution, Channel Fleet. In October 1901 her whole crew was turned over to the newly built Formidable which was commissioned at Portsmouth for duty on the Mediterranean station. Goodenough remained there for three years, being promoted captain on 1 January 1905. On 12 June 1901 he married Henrietta Margaret (d. 1956), daughter of Edward Lyulph Stanley who became fourth Baron Sheffield and fourth Baron Stanley of Alderley. They had two daughters.

The new scheme of naval education announced by Lord Selborne at the end of 1902 reduced the age of entry of cadets from 14-15 to 12-13, and required a period of four years' training on shore. This required a great expansion of education facilities. In 1905 Goodenough was selected to head the new college at Dartmouth to replace the old Britannia training ship. He wrote in his memoirs of the difficulties with this post, with the building having faults caused by 'the traditional saving of a ha'porth of tar'  (Goodenough, 61), and differences in approach between himself and the headmaster, Cyril Ashford. Particularly irksome to Goodenough was Ashford's wish to relate to the masters as 'colleagues' rather than in accordance with a services hierarchy Goodenough believed was necessary to instil into their young cadets. He remained at Dartmouth until August 1907 when he joined the Albemarle as flag captain to Sir John Jellicoe in the Atlantic Fleet for a year and then went to the Duncan as flag captain to Sir George Callaghan, second in command of the Mediterranean Fleet, until August 1910.

After short periods in command of the Cochrane, in which Goodenough escorted George V to the Indian durbar and was appointed MVO, and of the Colossus, 2nd battle squadron of the Grand Fleet, in July 1913 he was appointed to the Southampton as commodore (second class) of the 1st light cruiser squadron.

At the beginning of the war, in the action in the Heligoland bight on 28 August 1914, Goodenough with six light cruisers under him took a large part in the fighting including sinking the light cruiser Mainz. He was next in action during the German raid on Scarborough in December 1914, when in low visibility he got to within 3000 yards of a German light cruiser, part of a large force, when a misunderstanding over a signal to other ships caused him to break off his contact. This cost the opportunity for the British to inflict serious damage on the enemy fleet, and Goodenough received a great deal of blame for this, perhaps unfairly. His position seems only to have been saved by Churchill's intervention.

Things went somewhat better six weeks later, when in attempting a similar undertaking the German battle cruisers were caught off the Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, and only escaped at the cost of severe damage and the loss of the Blucher. In the following May, on the advent of some new light cruisers to the Grand Fleet, Goodenough's squadron was renamed the 2nd light cruiser squadron. In command of it and with his broad pennant still in the Southampton, he took part in the battle of Jutland, and was commended in dispatches for his tenacity in maintaining touch with and reporting the movements of enemy heavy ships. His bravery and persistence in the action has been held up as a 'model for scouting admirals'  (Marder, 3.63). It was from the Southampton that the presence of the German battle fleet, coming up to support the action begun an hour earlier, was first reported to Jellicoe and Beatty. The squadron became heavily engaged in a night action with German light forces, in the course of which the Southampton sustained very heavy damage and casualties but sank the German light cruiser Frauenlob.

Goodenough was promoted to flag rank soon after Jutland, appointed CB in 1916, and in December of that year transferred to the Orion as rear-admiral of the 2nd battle squadron until the end of the war. Promoted KCB at the new year, 1919, in May he became admiral superintendent of Chatham Dockyard, and a year later was made commander-in-chief, Africa station, being promoted to vice-admiral in July 1920.

In August 1922 Goodenough returned home and, after a short period in command of the Reserve Fleet, in March 1924 he was appointed commander-in-chief at the Nore for a term of three years, being promoted admiral in May 1925. For seven months before his retirement in May 1930 he served as first and principal naval aide-de-camp to the king, and was advanced to GCB at the new year.

For his war service Goodenough was appointed to the order of St Vladimir, third class with swords, and the order of the Rising Sun of Japan, second class, and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre (bronze palm). After retirement he revived the great interest he had taken in the Royal Geographical Society. His maternal grandfather had several times been president and his great-grandfather, William Richard Hamilton, was one of the founders. Goodenough was a fellow of the society from 1897, a member of its council in 1924-7 and 1939-42, vice-president in 1933-9 and from 1943, and president in 1930-33. In this role he was said to be 'always ready to defend the cause of primitive peoples exposed to contact with more advanced civilization'  (Clerk, 79), and he was a supporter of the Melanesian mission and the Fairbridge farm schools. The society prospered under his presidency and it was said that among 'the many great names in our records there is none who has a greater claim to be held in lasting and loving memory'  (Clerk, 79). Goodenough was also chairman of the British Sailors' Society, on whose behalf he addressed letters to The Times, urging the need for improving the conditions of the merchant service, and he represented the corporation of London on the Port of London Authority.

Goodenough was throughout his navy career a highly competent and distinguished seaman, 'a superb tactician'  (Marder, 1.408) who was also 'more talkative than most of his kind ... full of enthusiasm'  (ibid., 2.13), and he received great respect from both the officers and men in the vessels he commanded. Towards the end of his career he began to express a great deal of criticism of the administration of the Admiralty. But when in 1925, on the death of the second sea lord, Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, he was invited by W. C. Bridgeman to take his place on the board, Goodenough declined this opportunity to redress some of the faults he had perceived. Goodenough died at his home, Parson's Pightle, Coulsdon, Surrey, on 30 January 1945.

V. W. Baddeley 

Marc Brodie 

Sources  W. E. Goodenough, A rough record (1943) + A. J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: the Royal Navy in the Fisher era, 1904-1919, 5 vols. (1961-70) + The Times (31 Jan 1945) + G. R. Clerk, 'Admiral Sir William Edmund Goodenough', GJ, 105 (1945), 78-9 + Burke, Peerage + CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1945) + personal knowledge (1959) + private information (1959)
Archives BL OIOC, corresp. with F. M. Bailey, MS Eur. F 157 + Bodl. RH, corresp. with Lord Lugard FILM IWM FVA, actuality footage SOUND IWM SA, oral history interview
Likenesses  F. Dodd, charcoal and watercolour drawing, 1917, IWM · W. Stoneman, two photographs, 1919-31, NPG [see illus.] · A. S. Cope, group portrait, oils, 1921 (Naval officers of World War I, 1914-1918), NPG · photograph, repro. in The Times
Wealth at death  £28,098 7s. 8d.: probate, 1 May 1945, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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