Beatrice Lockwood was born in Batley, Yorkshire, England, in 1882, the daughter of William and Adeline Lockwood (née Haigh). The family home was at 65. Albert Street, Batley, and her father was a cloth finisher in one of the local woollen mills.
On the 16th February 1907, she married William Goodall whose parents lived at 99, Halifax Road, Staincliffe, Batley, and the couple set up their home at 93. Halifax Road, Staincliffe, Batley. On the 16th September 1907, Beatrice gave birth to their first child – a son named Leonard.
On the 12th August 1911, Willie, Beatrice, and Leonard arrived in New York City, having sailed from Liverpool on the
Carmania. Accompanying them on the voyage were Mrs. Florence Lockwood, and her children, Clifford and Lily. Florence was married to Beatrice’s uncle, Dick Lockwood, who had immigrated with his family to Kearny, New Jersey, in 1906. Florence Lockwood had been to England to visit relatives in the summer of 1911, and the Goodall family had decided to join them there.
The Goodall family had hoped they would find work and prosper in Kearny; however, work was not as plentiful as they had hoped, and William Goodall was forced to take a job as a labourer.
Beatrice gave birth to her second child, a son named Jack in July 1914in Kearny.
In the spring of 1915, the Goodall family decided to return home to Yorkshire and having booked as third class passengers on the
Lusitania, they boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, on 1st May 1915 in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Florence Lockwood and her children also decided to return to England with them, accompanied by Florence Lockwood’s niece, Edith Robshaw, and the eight of them travelled together.
The Lusitania’s departure was postponed until the early afternoon whilst the liner loaded cargo and took on board passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship at the end of April.
It was to be a fateful decision for six days out of New York, whilst steaming past The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, and only hours away from the safety of her Liverpool home port, the
Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 and the entire party of eight people was wiped out as a result of this action - not one of them surviving – and only the body of Lily Lockwood was recovered and identified afterwards. As a result, none of the other seven has a known grave. Beatrice Goodall was aged 32 years at the time of her death.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, West Yorkshire England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1813 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Bradford Daily Post, Yorkshire Observer, Leeds Mercury, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.