Thomas Goodwill (7 September 1894 – 1 July 1916) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as an

outside left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...

. He was described as "a quick mover, he possessed a good

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

and shot and delighted the crowd on many an appearance".

Personal life

Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Goodwill worked as a

sheave A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley. The sheave spins on an axle or bearing inside the frame of the pulley. This allows the wire or rope to move ...

lad at

Earsdon Earsdon is a village in the borough of North Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It sits on the border of Northumberland, which it is historically part of, and is approximately two miles from Whitley Bay. The village had a populat ...

Colliery. He served as a private in the

Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. Goodwill was killed on the first day of the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

, during the third wave of his

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

's attack south of Thiepval. He is commemorated on the

Thiepval Memorial The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

Career statistics

References

1894 births 1916 deaths English footballers Association football outside forwards Seaton Delaval F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players English Football League players British Army personnel of World War I Royal Northumberland Fusiliers soldiers British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme English miners Military personnel from Northumberland British coal miners Footballers from Northumberland {{England-footy-forward-1890s-stub