Sir Stuart Coldwell Goodwin (19 April 1886 – 6 June 1969) was a Sheffield steel industrialist and philanthropist who gave away over £500,000 to charities, particularly in south Yorkshire and north Nottinghamshire. He was head of the

Neepsend Steel and Tool Corporation Neepsend is a suburb of the city of Sheffield, it stands just north-west of the city centre. The main area of Neepsend covers the flood plain of the River Don, South Yorkshire, River Don from Lady's Bridge at the Wicker (Sheffield), Wicker up ...

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

1953 Coronation Honours The 1953 Coronation Honours were appointments by Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours on the occasion of her coronation on 2 June 1953. The honours were published in '' The London Gazette'' on 1 June 1953.New Zealand list: The rec ...

list and was

High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centu ...

in 1955. Soon after the end of WW2 he launched a notable and pioneering personal initiative. British industries needed to rebuild – and learn from other countries. He decided to provide funding for Travelling Fellowships specifically for young graduate engineers. Two “Sir Stuart Goodwin Fellowships” were awarded in each year between 1949 and 1958, all to recent graduates of Christ’s College and St John’s College Cambridge. The Fellowship was administered on his behalf by an eminent committee led by the charismatic and influential David Rennie Hardman, previously Secretary for Education in the British Government. In 1962, he founded the Sir Stuart and Lady Florence Goodwin Charity. There is a sports centre in Sheffield named after him, as was the Goodwin Fountain on

Fargate Fargate is a pedestrian precinct and shopping area in Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is ...

in the same city. The Sir Stuart Goodwin room at Newark Showground is named after him. The Lady Goodwin Play Park in

Farnsfield Farnsfield is a large Village#United Kingdom, village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire in Sherwood Forest. It is in the local government district of Newark and Sherwood. The population of the civil parish as at the United Kingdom Census 20 ...

, Nottinghamshire, is named after Lady Florence.

Golf sponsorship

Goodwin sponsored a foursomes tournament, the

Goodwin (Sheffield) Foursomes Tournament The Goodwin (Sheffield) Foursomes Tournament was a professional golf tournament played in the Sheffield area of England. The event was held from 1952 to 1954 and had total prize money of £3,000. The winning finalists shared £500 with £300 to t ...

, in 1952, 1953 and 1954 with prize money of £3,000 and another in 1956, the

Stuart C. Goodwin Tournament The Stuart C. Goodwin Tournament was a professional golf tournament played in Thrybergh, Yorkshire, England. The event was held just once, from 30 August to 1 September 1956, and had total prize money of £5,250. The event was sponsored by Sir S ...

, with prize money of £5,250. The £5,250 was the largest ever for a British golf event surpassing the £3,750 at the 1956 Open. All the tournaments were held in the Sheffield area, the 1953 event being held at Lindrick. Goodwin offered the P.G.A. £10,000 to host the

1957 Ryder Cup The 12th Ryder Cup Matches were held 4–5 October 1957 at Lindrick Golf Club near Worksop, England. The Great Britain team, led by captain Dai Rees, beat the United States team by a score of 7 to 4 points, and won the Ryder Cup for the first t ...

at Lindrick, the gate money going to the P.G.A. who were responsible for all payments in connection with the match. With gate receipts of £16,127 the £10,000 donation enabled the P.G.A. to make a record profit of about £11,000 out of the event. He later made a gift of £5,000 to the R&A to help promote the Walker Cup and games with Commonwealth countries. In 1959 Goodwin sponsored the Sherwood Forest Foursomes Tournament, which had prize money of £2,100 and in 1963 he sponsored the Stuart C. Goodwin Midland Professional Foursomes. In 1964 Goodwin sponsored a £1,000 Ryder Cup Reunion Foursomes tournament at Hallamshire Golf Club. Each member of the Britain and Ireland team for the

was paired with a Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire professional in the 72-hole foursomes event, played over two days. Goodwin was President of Lindrick Golf Club from 1958 to 1960. In 1960 Lindrick hosted the

Curtis Cup The Curtis Cup is the best known team trophy for women amateur golfers, awarded in the biennial Curtis Cup Match. It is co-organised by the United States Golf Association and The R&A and is contested by teams representing the United States and " ...

. Goodwin gave the

Ladies' Golf Union The Ladies' Golf Union (LGU) was the governing body for women's and girls' amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland. It was founded in 1893 and was based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland until merging with The R&A at the start of 2017. Issette ...

a gift of £2,000 to help stage the event and also guaranteed the LGU and Lindrick Golf Club against financial loss. Goodwin was a vice-president of the LGU.

References

English philanthropists People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Retford Businesspeople from Sheffield 1886 births 1969 deaths 20th-century British philanthropists Knights Bachelor High sheriffs of Nottinghamshire 20th-century English businesspeople {{England-business-bio-stub