George Jr. Goodwin
George Jr. Goodwin
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The name of the soldier is George Joseph Goodwin Jr born in Ottawa Ontario on march 11 1914. And their address is 12 Allan Place. George's father's name is George Goodwin and his mother's name is Marieal Marie Bline. George Goodwin Jr was their only child.
While at Glebe C.I., George enjoyed playing basketball, tennis, skiing and badminton. He held the title as Dominion Champion in Badminton doubles. He played badminton professionally before the war and was well known in badminton circles.
Before the war started George enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1934. His trade before the war began was as a Clerk Stenographer at Camp Borden. His records indicate that he had a willingness to learn, and was a good worked. Had he continued, his records indicate he would have made a good clerk. George is honourably discharged in 1935 before he comes back as a pilot.
George was married later during the war to Louise Drouin on April 17th, 1937.
George attempted to retrain as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. George had experience in the Air Force, previously as a clerk before the war started. George received many letters endorsing his training from prominent members of the community. Unfortunately, he struggled with key aspects of the pilot training. His records indicate that he struggled with keeping the plane level after take off. Instead he was retrained as an aerial observer and gunner and he became a sergeant and flew many missions over Europe as a member of an air team.
George was killed in action while serving as an aerial observer and gunner. He was initially reported missing, but his record was later updated to killed in action when he death was confirmed by a German broadcast stating that Sgt. Goodwin had been buried on October 16th, 1941. George was buried in Belgium at the Dinant Military Cemetery. This Belgian town of Dianant is located between Brussels and Luxembourg.
The biographies appearing on this website have been written by students, roughly the same age as the soldiers they are studying, using primary source evidence from Library and Archives Canada, in addition to primary source documents from The Virtual War Memorial on veterans.ca. We welcome any corrections or additions you may have to these biographies.
'If we do preserve it, we honour them, and when we in our turn pass on, we will know that behind us lives a generation of free men and of free women to be the keepers of this great heritage of ours - Canada.'
- Ian A. McPhee, former student at GCI, 1937.
Glebe Collegiate Institute
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
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