Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born in Dunstan, near Alnwick, Northumberland on 27th January 1883 John was the son of Charles and Isabella (nee McLeod) Goodfellow.
On 3rd May 1901 John enlisted with the 9th Lancers and two years later proceeded with them to India and South Africa, returning to England in February 1909 for discharge. In Edinburgh on 8th December 1911 John married Margaret Hay and the two of them emigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, where John found work as a checker.
June 1915 saw John enlisting with “B” Company, 60th (Victoria Rifles) Battalion as Private 457503, and at the end of the month he joined them for summer training in the camp at Valcartier. With his previous military experience he was promoted Lance Corporal, then Corporal in July and Sergeant in August. The Battalion returned to barracks on Guy Street, Montreal in October and in mid November sailed aboard the SS Scandinavian for Plymouth and a posting to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire. Arriving in France in late February as part of the 9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, John was promoted to Company Sergeant Major in June.
During fighting at Courcelette CSM Goodfellow was wounded in the hands and face and invalided to hospital in Manchester at the end of September. After convalescence at Epsom he was discharged to duty at the end of November and attached to 3rd Canadian Casualty Department at Hastings, and to the School of PT & BF, Shoreham.
With the disbandment of the 60th Battalion in April 1917, John became a full time PT instructor at the 1st and 3rd CCD and from the end of August at Bearwood Convalescent Hospital, Wokingham. April 1918 saw him posted to the Canadian Army Gymnastics Staff School in London, and the next month he was attached to the PT School at Epsom.
Returning to Canada for duty as a PT instructor he arrived in Montreal on 8th October and a posting to Hart House School, Toronto as Bayonet Fighting and PT instructor. With the need for fighting instruction over in December he was attached to Ste Anne de Bellevue Military Hospital, Montreal, where in January 1919 he was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant. QMS Goodfellow remained at this hospital as a remedial instructor until he was demobilised on 15th January 1920.
John and Margaret remained in Montreal; the 1921 Canadian census lists John as an orderly at a military hospital. Their last known address was 1183 Mountain Street, Montreal. John died on 19th June 1948 at Queen Mary Veterans Hospital, and is buried in the National Field of Honour, Pointe Claire, Quebec.
John Goodfellow is remembered in Morpeth on M17.16
