Can you help us identify Lou?:

Lou was born in 1896 at Red Range, near Glen Innes in northern New South Wales. He was the youngest child of Albert Emmanuel Goodwin 1867-1897 and Annie Marie Kneipp 1866-1943, and grew up alongside his siblings Dudley, Huntley, James, Edgar, Daisy, and Aubrey. The Goodwin ancestors came from Kent. Kneipp family were from the Armidale area, their ancestors from Winkel, Hesse, Germany.

His early life was marked by tragedy. In January 1897, when Lou was still an infant, and Aubrey on the way, their father Albert was killed in a horrific mining accident at the Eleanora Mine in Hillgrove. While working in a shaft, Albert was struck in the back by a falling timber from 175 feet above. Though alive when brought to the surface, he died within minutes of his rescue:

The Goodwin children:

Annie Marie, widowed with five children and one on the way, continued to live in Hillgrove, a small but busy and thriving mining town. The town would have stood by her after the terrible accident. And she was very active in the community, hospital and the church. The children were educated at St Joseph’s Convent School. (Founded through Mother Mary McKillop’s sisters of St Joseph. Annie Marie would have met her when she visited in the late 1890s.)

When Lou left school, he entered the Public Service. In 1913, at just 17, Lou was promoted from a Telegraph Messenger in Hillgrove to a Postal Assistant (Grade II) at Jones Island, near Taree:

By 1915, with war raging overseas, Lou made the decision to enlist in the AIF. Like many young men of his generation, he was eager to serve — despite the personal risks, and the sacrifice his family had already endured.

Lou enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 28 October 1915 at Armidale, New South Wales, aged just 19.

He was assigned to the 31st Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement and began his military training at Enoggera Camp in Queensland. On 18 February 1916, Lou embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT A70 Ballarat, bound for Egypt. After arriving in Suez in late March, he was briefly confined to barracks and forfeited six days’ pay for a minor absence without leave — an infraction common among new recruits adjusting to the discipline of army life.

Before his death at Fromelles, Lou was part of a tight-knit group of local Hillgrove boys serving overseas. Their bond — and their humour — travelled with them into the trenches of France. In July 1916, Morgan Stephens of Hillgrove received a remarkable "souvenir" in the mail, a hard army biscuit, laced with red tape, and signed by several local soldiers including Louis Goodwin. The biscuit was inscribed with phrases like:

It was labelled as “Soldiers’ Ivory Polish”, “Angel Cake”, “Guaranteed Sound” and “Manna from the Desert”. The humorous note was censored and signed by Lou himself, along with Jim Gardner, Joe Martin, Nat Taylor, Slip Wayte, and the McLean brothers — all from the Hillgrove region:

This small artefact reveals something deeper than humour — the resilience and spirit of a group of young men who faced the horrors of war with wit, loyalty, and connection to home.

On 1 April 1916, Lou was formally taken on strength by the 31st Battalion while at Duntroon Plateau, and just two months later, on 16 June, he sailed from Alexandria with the British Expeditionary Force to join the war on the Western Front.

Before embarking for France, Lou spent several weeks in Egypt with his battalion. It was during this time that Sergeant James Gardner, also from Armidale, wrote a letter home to the Armidale Chronicle, dated July 1916, providing an update on familiar faces:

He closed the letter with the wry observation that they would soon be off to "the land of champagne and Eau de Cologne" — a nod to the move from Egypt to France that was already underway. After landing in Marseilles, France, on 23 June 1916, the men of the 31st Battalion travelled north by train and were stationed near the quiet town of Fleurbaix. It was here, in the trenches of northern France, that Lou would spend his final weeks.

On the night of 17 July 1916, two days before the main assault at Fromelles, Lou Goodwin of A Company, 31st Battalion, was one of six men chosen for a dangerous reconnaissance patrol. Their mission was to cross into No-Man’s-Land near Fleurbaix under cover of darkness and inspect the German barbed wire entanglements. The purpose was to assess whether the wire had been effectively cut in preparation for the attack scheduled for 19 July.

It was a perilous task. The patrol had to crawl out into exposed terrain between the trenches, avoiding enemy observation, flares, and machine-gun fire. According to numerous witnesses, Lou did not return.

Private G. Holmes, 31st Battalion, A Company:

Corporal Forbes, 31st Battalion:

Private C.C. Holmes, 31st Battalion:

Lance Corporal C. Bayliss, 31st Battalion:

Private W. McDougall, B Company:

Pte S.G. Hodges, A Company:

These statements all point to a single conclusion: Lou was killed during the patrol and his body was seen, touched, and confirmed dead in No-Man’s-Land. Several witnesses expressed regret that they could not retrieve him due to the danger. Despite the visible position of his body, no recovery effort was launched that night or the following day. This was common in that sector — venturing into No-Man’s-Land in daylight or without covering fire was a near-certain death sentence. And with the full-scale battle only 36 hours away, priorities had shifted to the main attack.

A year later, a Court of Enquiry held on 1 August 1917 officially declared Private Louis John Goodwin killed in action on 17 July 1916.

Form B103 simply states “Buried in the vicinity of Fleurbaix, Sheet 36NW.” His body was never recovered.

Despite extensive efforts by his mates and fellow soldiers, Louis John Goodwin never returned from the battlefield. His body was not recovered, but multiple eyewitness accounts confirmed his death and one report stated they came across his body on the night of the battle. Private John Lowe, 2190, of A Company, 31st Battalion, gave this report to the Red Cross:

Two days after Lou was killed during the night patrol, the 31st Battalion took part in the Battle of Fromelles, launched at 6.00 PM on 19 July 1916. It was their first major action on the Western Front — and it ended in disaster. The battalion was tasked with assaulting heavily defended German lines across open ground, facing well-prepared machine-gun emplacements and largely uncut barbed wire.

The Australian 5th Division, which included the 31st Battalion, suffered over 5,500 casualties in 24 hours. The 31st Battalion alone lost 544 men killed, wounded or missing — more than half its fighting strength. Among the missing were many who, like Lou, were last seen lying in No-Man’s-Land, their bodies never recovered.

Lou did not go to war alone. On 28 October 1915, he enlisted at Armidale alongside two close friends from Hillgrove: Joseph Archibald Lorraine Martin and William Henry Logan. All three were young, local, and eager to serve — a reflection of the patriotic spirit that swept their small mining town.

They trained together, embarked on the same ship (in Lou and Joe’s case — the Ballarat), and corresponded with family and friends back home. They were remembered fondly by those who knew them — humorous, loyal, and brave.

Sadly, none of the trio would return:

In October 1917, the Daily Observer described the tragedy:

In March 1917 Annie Marie had moved to live in Leichardt, Syndey, In 1930 she was living with some of her children Daisy, a public servant, Dudley, an agent and Edgar a mechanic at 7 Esher St Burwood. In the same year, Aubrey is an orchardist in 598 Beelbangers, Griffith NSW.

The Goodwin family gave more than one son to the Great War. While Lou was the only one who did not return, three of his brothers also served their country with distinction across multiple branches of the Australian forces:

In March 1917, many months after Lou was reported missing, the Armidale Chronicle published a brief community update from Hillgrove. It described the ongoing uncertainty his family faced:

The article also noted that Edgar, recently returned from Gallipoli, was unwell in Sydney, while Dudley, the eldest, was in England awaiting deployment to the front.

Lou has no known grave, but his name is among the 10,885 Australians inscribed on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France — a site that honours those who fell on the Western Front and were never recovered. The memorial stands on Hill 104, behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery.

He is honoured on several other memorials, including:

Private Louis John Goodwin was killed during a night patrol on 17 July 1916, ahead of the Battle of Fromelles. His death was confirmed by multiple eyewitnesses who saw or touched his body in No-Man’s-Land, but he was never recovered. He has no known grave.

We are now seeking DNA from relatives to help confirm his identity and give him a named grave. Can you help?