Topic: Trooper Frank Goodrick
Topic type:
A soldier of the Great War killed in action at Bir el Abd.
Trooper Frank Goodrick – 7/959
Frank was born 24 April 1881, eldest son of Henry and Mary Goodrick, York. He and a younger brother Harry, had emigrated to New Zealand 10 years earlier, presumably through contact with his maternal uncle Mr J. Magson of Rakaia. He had been working on farms in the Canterbury area and at the time of enlisting he was working as a ploughman for Mr Souter, Greendale. He was 5ft 9 ¼ inches tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and sandy hair. The doctor also noted that he had two plates of false teeth.
Frank enlisted just after Christmas on 29 December 1914 at Trentham and was assigned to the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. He embarked on 17 April 1915 with the Fourth Reinforcements for Suez. The New Zealand troops were tasked with protecting the Canal and rail lines. In early August 1916, after the British victory at the battle of Romani, the ANZAC forces took on the much larger retiring Turkish Army forces at Bir el Abd. Frank was killed in action on 9 August 1916, aged 35. He was first buried on the battlefield at Bir el Abd but is now buried in the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery. Frank is remembered on the Malvern County Memorial and Greendale Roll of Honour. He is also remembered in The King’s Book of York Heroes, a unique memorial to citizens of York killed in the First World War.
