Lieutenant Ambrose Harold Goodman
Born Cayuga ON, 1896
Lived in Whychwood Park in Toronto Ontario
Enlisted with the Great War Veterans Overseas Company
Served with the 116th Battalion
Killed in Action on Aug 8, 1918 – Battle of Amiens
Powered by the unbounded exuberance of youth the man, with all his might, he blew into the bugle and called the company to order. It was the cusp of Spring in March 1917 and 250 boys, the greenest fruit of the Toronto elite, had gathered and come to order as a new company of the 109th Regiment. By this time of the war and every man assembled was well aware of the risks and dangers that came with signing up. Every day for the past three years, local newspapers published what seemed like an endless list of the men who had fallen. Day after day they were listed…names of men who fell at Neuve Chapelle, then Second Ypres, then to those who fell in the battles of the Somme, Pozieres, Courcelette and Beaumont Hamel. The tragic and travesty of the war was well known to these lads…yet despite it all, the boys were smarty dressed in their uniforms and doing their best impression of a salute they stood there ready to be taken away to war.
These men were the draft of 250 volunteers who made up the Great War Veterans Overseas Company. The Company was established in early 1917 and was sponsored by the men who had already been over there, fought, got wounded or injured and then returned home to Canada. The GWVOC was attached to the 109th Regiment which was associated with the 169thBattalion. Previous drafts of the 169thwere already sent overseas in 1916 and many of the soldiers were fighting with the 116th Ontario County Battalion. The compelling aspect of the regiment in particular relates to the messaging they employed to attract and recruit new men. Despite the hardships, the death, the horror of war and the utter destruction of humanity itself which was taking place over there, the advertising of the Great War Veterans Company promoted the wonderful benefits one would get if they decided to join up and join this new company. Their unit was to be a place where an adventurous youth could serve their country in a delightful spirit of fellowship. The GWVOC was a brotherhood of men, a place where once can find comradeship with like-minded friends. Despite the nightmarish conditions spoken by those who survived the trenches the GWVOC provided a glass half-full view on the war. They highlighted the ‘thrills’ and ‘adventures’ one could get if they decided to join up. They even promoted the exhilaration once would feel when they took that first step over the parapet (incidentally and conveniently omitting the part about walking right into a wall of lead). Sure, the war was dangerous…but going up with the GWVOC was going to be a jolly good, rollicking time!
The aforementioned man blowing the horn, was one of the first from the unit to respond and probably one of the more vocal leaders in the regiment. Travelling to U of T club to U of T college he would have been a leader in promoting the message being used to attracted new recruits. His name was 21 yr old Lieutenant Abrose Harold Goodman. Goodman was the son of one of the city of Toronto’s wealthy elite. His family emigrated to Canada back in 1860 with his grandfather being a noted landscape artist. (Marmaduke Matthews) He lived in a magnificent mansion situated in the tony well-treed enclave of Whychwood Park. Ambrose was educated at the U of T Schools followed by two years of study at University College in the University of Toronto. He was accepted into and was scheduled to study law at Osgoode Law School however with the war needing men, he elected to postpone his education and join the CEF instead. Like his fellow OWVOC volunteers he wanted his chance to join into the fight over in France.
Goodman’s time as a soldier began with his arrival in England in December of 1917. From his early start with the 109th Regiment, he began his career with the CEF in the 1st Depot Battalion before being transferred to the 116thBattalion on the eve of being deployed to France. Upon joining the unit, Goodman assisted in preparing the 116th with all their relatively green recruits (Goodman included) for the upcoming planned operations against the Axis powers. His first and only taste of war happened on the 8th of August at the Battle of Amiens. After a 6km hike to the assembly positions, Goodman and his platoon found themselves at 2:00 in the morning situated outside the village of Hourges. Staring forward into the darkness, they waited. At exactly 4:20 am the thunder of the guns signalled the start of the monumental operation and Lieutenant Goodman, unholstering his sidearm led his men forward across the fields of battle. And they were fields…farm fields with row upon row of corn that the men had to navigate whilst the waiting Germans showered the area with shellfire and blasted away from their entrenched machine gun nests. Leading his men forward, it was not until the men were just about to achieve their objectives when Goodman was hit in the face, leg and thigh with shrapnel. With those injuries, despite the fact that it only started minutes prior, his war would come to an end.
Through the fog and smoke of war, and with the din of the guns still echoing across he sector Lieutenant Goodman found himself grounded with a serious injury and desperately needing help. His men were long gone, rushing forward and now out of sight looking to mop up the zone of all enemy and to consolidate their victory. It would have been at this time when the injured Lieutenant called over six Germans had just surrendered and were heading back towards the Canadian rear zone. These six men carried the stricken Goodman back across the battlefield to the casualty clearing station…the vanquished, glad they were spared doing their best to save one of the men who had come to kill them. He was first moved to the closest Casualty Clearing Station where he was stabilized, however due to the severity of his injuries he was later moved to the No.8 General Hospital at Rouen. With wounds to his face and thigh, while the Lieutenant seemed to be on the road to recovery, his situation quickly made a turn for the worse. On the 15th of August, after a short battle Lieutenant Ambrose Harold Goodman, the pride of Wychwood Park and the University of Toronto passed away.
Remember him.