Albert Nathaniel Jones Goodman was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, in 1889, the son of James and Mary Ann Goodman (née Fessey). His father was a labourer, and Albert was one of eight children, three of whom had died by 1911. The family home was at 30. Nellcroft Street, Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, where he lived with his parents until 1912. He was unmarried.
In September 1912, he arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on board the Corsican, having sailed from Liverpool. He gave his occupation as being a driller, and was intending to go to friends in Peterborough, Ontario. It is not known if he ever reached Peterborough, for in March 1913 he crossed over the border to the United States of America, and settled in Rochester, New York State, where he worked as a street car employee with the New York State Railways.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to return home at the behest of his elderly father who feared he wouldn’t see him again before he died. Consequently, he booked as a second cabin passenger on the
Lusitania, for his passage across the Atlantic and leaving Rochester at the end of April 1915, he boarded the liner on the morning of 1st May in time for her sailing, which began just after mid-day.
He was killed six days later, after the liner was torpedoed, and as his body was never recovered from the sea and identified later, he has no known grave.
After his death his parents applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for financial assistance. The fund had been set up after the sinking by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and a group of local businessmen, to help second and third class passenger survivors or the relatives of those killed.
His parents must have had other means of support, however, as the awards committee only granted them a once and for all payment of £2-0s-0d.!
Railways must have featured prominently in Arthur’s family as his brother, Sergt. Alfred Goodman, No. 13550, served in France with the British Expeditionary Forces in the Railway Supply Detachment!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Democrat and Chronicle, Birmingham Daily Gazette, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/33, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.