LANCE CORPORAL OSWALD RAYMOND GOODYEAR
NEWFOUNDLAND REGIMENT
12TH OCTOBER 1916 AGE 18
BURIED: BANCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
A combination of the Newfoundland Regiment's digitised records and an acclaimed family memoir, The Danger Tree, written by David Macfarlane one of the surviving brother's grandsons, means that a great deal is known about Raymond Goodyear and his five brothers, two of whom, like him, were killed in the war.
Stanley Charles Goodyear enlisted on 8 September 1914, the first brother to do so. He was closely followed by Josiah Robert on 19 September. Harold Kenneth enlisted in February 1915, Oswald Raymond on 23 November whilst Hedley John waited until 28 March 1916. Kenneth was wounded on 1 July 1916, Raymond was killed on 12 October, Josiah was wounded on 21 November, Stanley was killed on 10 October 1917 and Hedley on 22 August 1918.
Both Kenneth and Josiah were invalided out of the army: Kenneth's gunshot wound in his left elbow meant it would not bend beyond a right angle, and Josiah's gunshot wound in his right thigh made it difficult for him to walk far.
Hedley did not serve with a Newfoundland Regiment but with the Canadian Infantry. A graduate of Victoria University, Toronto, he was teaching at Regal Road Public School when he enlisted. The letter he wrote to his mother on 7 August 1918, the eve of the opening of the battle of Amiens, became famous as 'the last letter home of Hedley Goodyear' and was regularly read at Armistice and Memorial Day services. It was believed that Hedley had been killed the after writing it. However, the letter he wrote on 17 August, in which he told his mother that he was "hun-proof", really was his last letter home. He was shot by a sniper and killed instantly on the 22nd.
Stanley has no grave and is commemorated on the Newfoundland Memorial. Hedley is buried in Hillside Cemetery on the Somme, his inscription reads:
Beneath this stone
A hero sleeps
Who gave his life
For humanity.