Charles Henry GOODE

GOODE, (SIR) CHARLES HENRY (b. Hinton, Herefordshire, England, 29 May 1827; d. Adelaide, SA, 5 Feb 1922). Baptist merchant and philanthropist.

The son of a farmer, Goode left school when 10 years old and was apprenticed to a draper 2 years later. He worked in that trade until he migrated to SA in 1845, where he opened a soft-goods business in partnership with Thomas Good at North Adelaide. This was the beginning of a very successful business career and after several changes in partnership the firm of Goode and Durrant emerged as one of Adelaide's leading retailers of soft-goods. Stores were located throughout Adelaide and in several other parts of Australia and in London. Goode also held directorates in several other companies and owned the Adelaide Advertiser for several years. He headed his firm's interests in London from 1859 to 1863 and had a further twelve years there in the 1870s and 1880s. Goode also represented East Torrens in the House of Assembly for three years from 1863.

Goode initially belonged to the Church of England, being a lay-reader at Christ Church, North Adelaide, but he embraced Baptist views and was baptised in 1856 at North Adelaide Baptist Church of which he remained a member until his death except for his time in London. Goode regularly served on the committees of the SA Baptist Union and was twice its chairman. The Union and individual churches often benefitted from his great financial liberality. Although a committed Baptist he always considered himself a Christian first and a Baptist second. In the 1890s he initiated an unsuccessful attempt to bring denominations holding to believer's baptism into closer union. Goode was also passionately committed to Christian education and conducted a young men's Bible class at Flinders St Baptist Church for 32 years. He helped to found the YMCA in Adelaide in 1851 and also served a lengthy term as its president. Further interdenominational interests were the CIM, the Sudan Mission and the Chapman Alexander Bible Institution.

Goode was renowned in Adelaide not only for his genial character but also for his philanthropic efforts. He helped to establish in Adelaide the Royal Institution for the Blind in 1884 and was its president until 1922. He also helped to found the Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission and the District Trained Nurses Institution, and he was a benefactor of numerous other charitable organisations. He was knighted in 1912 in recognition of his service to SA.

Goode survived his first wife Mary Good (m. 6 Aug 1856) and married Helen Lloyd, nee Smith the widow of a Baptist minister on 16 Dec 1890 and became stepfather of her two girls. Upon his death in 1922 he left an estate Of £32 000 and richly endowed the SA Baptist Union and charitable institutions with which he had been involved.

The Australian Baptist 7 Feb 1922: 8; ADB 4; D L Hilliard, 'The City of Churches' in Brian Dickey (ed) William Shakespeare's Adelaide (Adelaide, 1992); H E Hughes, Our First Hundred Years: The Baptist Church of South Australia (Adelaide, 1937)

SELECT WRITINGS: A Visit to Japan and Notes by the Way (Adelaide, 1898)

JOHN WALKER