Jesse Goody
Rank: Corporal
Service Number: 7728
Date of Birth: August 1888
Regiment: 4th Battalion the King's Royal Rifle Corps
Date of Death: 5 March 1915
Age at death: 26
Cemetery / Memorial: Menin Gate, Ypres
Country: Belgium
Grave / Reference: Panel 51 & 53
Relatives: Son of Charles & Esther Goody
Address: 91 George Street, Hadleigh
Corporal Jesse Goody was entitled to three medals; the 1915 Star, the British Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
In early March 1914 the British Army continued to harass the enemy along the entire 30 miles of front line. This strategy was crucial in order to pin the Germans down and weaken their ability to reinforce any specific point of attack. However, it also meant that the front line was a very dangerous place to be. In the front line at St Eloi to the south of Ypres at this time was Corporal Jesse Goody with the 4th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
Entry from 4 KRRC War Diary for 5 Mar 15
On the 4th of March they experience very heavy shelling from enemy howitzers but only suffered a few casualties. The 5th was according to the war diary ‘a very quiet day’, however, that is when Corporal 7728 Jesse Goody from Hadleigh was killed. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate.
Excerpt from 4 KRRC War Diary listing casualties from 5 Mar 15
Jesse Goody was born in August 1888 son of Charles and Esther and enlisted into the army on the 3rd December 1906. The family grew to become probably the largest family in Hadleigh; at the time of the 1911 census Jesse has 17 siblings alive, with 13 plus the parents living in the family home at 91 George Street.
At the time of the 1911 census, Jesse was serving in India with his regiment. At the outbreak of war, the regiment returned from India, landing at Le Harve in December 1914. According to Jesse's medal card he entered the theatre of war Jesse on 20th December 1914.
King's Royal Rifle Corps cap badge
Jesse also had four brothers also served in forces with Frederick losing his life in Gaza in 1917 and sister Lottie losing her husband, Arthur William Abbott, at Passchendaele in 1918.
