Archibald Goodchild
Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) 10th BattalionArchibald William Goodchild, born in Tottenham, Middlesex, in 1893, was 18 in 1911, and is listed in the 1911 Census as living with his mother Amelia (a widow), sister Amelia (age 22) and brothers George (20) and Ernest (14) at 12 Giles Street, Bradford.
Archibald’s occupation is listed as warehouseman in dress goods, presumably in one of the worsted mills in the Harden area, hence his name being included on the war memorial.
Archibald W Goodchild, Private 67053, of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 10th Battalion, died on 3rd January 1917 in the battle of Ancre of the Somme front.
Archibald is commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, France.
Medals: British War Medal & British Victory Medal.
Thiepval Memorial
On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance.
Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day.
However, the German Army resisted tenaciously, At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter. In the spring of 1917, the German forces fell back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line, and there were no further significant engagements in the Somme sector until the Germans mounted their major offensive in March 1918. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave.
Read more about the memorial on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website.
Thiepval memorial
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