Albert Goode – Forest of Dean Social History

Albert Goode was born in Viney Hill, near Lydney, in 1882. He was the only child of William and Emma Goode. Both father and son worked in the mines at New Fancy colliery. Albert Goode had a difficult childhood and became the sole breadwinner for the family, having to care for his ageing mother and father. His mother died in February 1912 and his father died in January 1915.

He was often in trouble with the police for minor offences associated with his use of abusive language and alcohol. Between 1903 and 1914, he appeared in court nineteen times and was imprisoned for 14 days on 27 October 1908 for using abusive language.^[1] It is possible he had Tourette’s syndrome.^[2]

Place of Conviction	Date	Offence	Sentence
Coleford	16/6/03	Drunkenness	Fined 2s 6d plus costs
Littledean	10/ 2/04	Abusive Language	Fined 10s plus costs
Littledean	24/05/04	Abusive Language	Fined 10s plus costs
Littledean	24/02/05	Abusive Language	Fined 10s plus costs
Coleford	9/10/06	Drunkenness	Fined 2s 6d plus costs
Coleford	5/02/07	Drunkenness	Fined 7s 6d plus costs
Coleford	23/07/07	Refusing to Quit	Fined £1 plus costs
Coleford	24/09/07	Abusive Language	Fined 5s plus costs
Coleford	27/10/08	Abusive Language	14 days in prison
Littledean	21/07/10	Drunkenness
Coleford	26/04/11	Abusive Language	Fined 7s 6d plus costs
Coleford	16/08/11	Abusive Language	Fined 12s 6d plus costs
Coleford	3/01/12	Drunk and disorderly	Fined 10s plus costs
Coleford	8/06/12	Drunk and disorderly	Fined 15s plus costs
Coleford	08/02/13	Drunkenness (found drunk on the side of the road	Fined £1 plus costs
Coleford	27/09/13	Drunk and disorderly	Fined £1 plus costs
Coleford	21/10/13	Abusive Language	Fined £1 plus costs
Coleford	15/12/13	Abusive Language	Fined £1 plus costs
Coleford	06/06/14	Abusive Language	Fined £2 plus costs

Goode used to drink at the Albion Inn in Viney Hill, but often got into conflict there. On 11 September 1913 and 15 December 1913, he was thrown out of the pub after being refused a drink when he arrived drunk and using abusive language.

World War One

After the start of the war, Goode joined the Gloucestershire Regiment on 1 October 1915. On 22 January 1916, he went Absent Without Leave for just one week after a period on home leave. He was arrested and returned to his regiment.[3] He may have been encouraged to desert by James Thomas, also from Viney Hill, who deserted three months earlier and was arrested at the same time.

Goode suffered from severe frostbite in the winter of 1917/18 while in France at St Quentin. He was sent back to England, where he had both feet amputated.^[4]He was discharged from the army on 11 September 1918.

Goode was unable to work and lived for a while as a boarder with Sidney and Annie James at the Albion Inn. However, at times, he was homeless and lived as a tramp on the streets of Gloucester and was often arrested by the police and, on one occasion, charged under the vagrancy laws. The following report appeared in the Gloucester Citizen on 27 September 1922.

Albert Samuel Goode, an ex-soldier, was charged with wandering abroad. lodging in the open air and not giving a good account of himself. Inspector James said the prisoner was a discharged soldier, in receipt of a pension of £2 per week. For the past month or so, he had been found nightly asleep in one or other of the streets in Gloucester. The police had done absolutely all they could to help him. They had tried to find lodgings for him, but owing to his unclean habits, no one would keep him, and they now felt compelled to bring him before the Court to be dealt with according to the law. Unfortunately, the prisoner had lost both his legs at St. Quentin, and had artificial limbs.

P.C. Betteridge stated that at 12.30 a.m. that morning, he found the prisoner asleep in Southgate Street. He had 11s. 10d. in his possession.

Detective-Sergeant Bartlett said he had made inquiries respecting the prisoner of the Chief Area Officer for the Ministry of Pensions, in fairness to whom it should be stated that everything possible had been done for him. Previous to coming to Gloucester prisoner was under treatment at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital at Bath, from which institution he was. discharged for disciplinary reasons, and for similar cause, he had also been discharged from, among other hospitals, an institution at Fulham, where was found a wheel chair, and everything possible was being done for him.

Witness had frequently given him good advice, which the prisoner refused to act upon, and continued to spend his pension money on drink. It was a practically hopeless case, but if the prisoner would go to the Poor Law Institution for a period in the interests of his cleanliness, the Chief Area Officer for the Ministry of Pensions would, on his discharge, again take the case and do what he could for him.

The prisoner said he was prepared to accept the advice given and go to the Poor Law Institution. He would, he said, be willing to go anywhere for a rest and to take his legs off. The Bench adjourned the case for a week to enable the prisoner to carry out his promise.

Place of Conviction	Date	Offence	Sentence
Coleford	01/06/21	Abusive Language	Fined 10s plus costs
Gloucester	20/09/22	vagrancy	Adjourned
Gloucester	27/09/22	vagrancy	Discharged
Gloucester	06/01/23	Drunk and disorderly	Fined 10s plus costs
Gloucester	24/03/23	Drunk and disorderly	One month in prison
Gloucester	25/08/23	Drunk and disorderly	Fined £2
Gloucester	30/09/23	Drunk and disorderly	Remanded for a week
Gloucester	30/09/23	Drunk and disorderly	One month in prison with hard labour

Goode may have attended the workhouse for a while. However, the above table reveals that he continued to drink and live on the streets in Gloucester. He was up before the courts four more times in 1923, before finally being sentenced to one month in prison with hard labour. The authorities had made enquiries about the possibility of admitting him to a home for inebriates, but because he had lost his feet no home would admit him. [5] However, after 1923, there appear to be no further cases of Goode being brought before the courts and so he may have eventually received and accepted the help he desperately needed.

The next time he appeared in the newspapers was when he was a victim of an unpleasant crime. It appears that by 1926, he had moved back to Viney Hill because the following report appears in the Gloucester Journal on 23 October 1926.

At Coleford Petty Sessions on Tuesday— before Mr. W. A. Bennett and other justices—Albert Turley, Charles Edmunds, and Frank Thomas, colliers, Oldcroft, were charged with stealing an envelope, containing an Army ring paper, a £1 Treasury note, and some silver coins, the property of Albert Samuel Goode, Army pensioner, of the same place.

Mr. F. W. Harvey represented all the defendants, who pleaded not guilty. Goode, who lost both his legs in the war and has artificial limbs in consequence, stated that while sitting on the green in front of the New Inn at Viney Hill, the defendants Turley and Edmunds rolled him over, and sometime later he discovered that the Treasury note and other articles were missing. He did not complain about the loss, however, until two days later. Turley and Edmunds brought the ring paper to him and expressed their regret. Thomas took no part in rolling him on the ground. Evidence was given that after the money was supposed to have been taken by Turley, who paid for some drink in the New Inn with a £1 note, which he asserted was his own property, but which the prosecution sought to show was the note that had been taken from Goode. Both Turley and Edmunds denied having taken anything from Goode. What was done to him on the ground was in the nature joke. The charge against Thomas was dismissed. The Chairman reminded Turley and Edmunds that they had both been convicted of larceny on a previous occasion. They would now be fined £3 each or the alternative of a month’s imprisonment. They were allowed a week in which to find the money.

We can only hope that Goode eventually found some peace and learnt to cope with the effects of the traumas he experienced during the war and loss of his legs without turning to drink. Albert Goode died in May 1938 and is buried in Westbury-on-Severn churchyard.

[2] Tourette’s syndrome is a condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics. Sometimes this involves the repeated use of abusive language.

[3] Gloucester Journal 22 January 1916.

[4] Gloucester Journal 20 April 1918.

[5] Gloucester Journal 06 October 1923

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