NAME John Stephen Goddard
BORN Robe South Australia Abt. 1890
DIED ?
MILITARY SERIAL NO. 2156
UNIT 10th Battalion
ENLISTED Keswick South Australia 12 February 1915
DISCHARGED Adelaide 20 August 1917 – Medically unfit

  1. Wounded at Etaples – shell wound right hand.
  2. Wounded while serving elsewhere in France – became dangerously ill due to a serious gun shot wound to abdomen.

John Stephen Goddard had two blocks of land, one of 40 acres and the second a  Western Land Lease No. 2625  of 20,480 acres. This property called Kulka, was located at Tarrawangie, via Broken Hill.[1]

Two character references endorsed by the Broken Hill Repatriation Committee outlined his credentials and suitability for working a WLL as he had experience as a station manager and overseer. The manager of the local Stock and Station Agents, Bagot, Shakes and Lewis, saw him as man who was ‘straight forward, energetic, hardworking and thoroughly capable’.[2] In the second reference, the local butcher Alfred Crossing stated that he also believed that Goddard was a ‘sober good worker, who would be successful on the land’.[3]

John Goddard applied for his Advance twice on 1 May 1920 and 13 June 1921.[4]

He wanted the advance to build a windmill and to clean out a big tank known as a long tank.  ‘I cannot’, he said ‘make a garden or be sure of water for my stock until the long tank is cleaned out’.[5] Goddard however withdrew his application for an advance on 9 July 1921 as by this time he was trying to sell his WLL.[6]

It appears he sold the WLL as by 1930, he was working as a Station Manager on a property called Weinteriga at Menindee.[7]

Footnotes

[1]  SRNSW:  Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers loan files;  [12/6986 No. 4104] John Stephen Goddard. Application for Loan 1 May 1920.

[2] Ibid, Ken Martin, Manager of Stock and Stage Agents, Bagot, Shakes and Lewis, 5 May 1920.

[3] Ibid, Alfred Crosssing, Butcher, Broken Hill,

[4] Ibid;  Application for Loan 13 June 1921.

[5] Ibid, J.S. Goddard to the Secretary? Soldiers’ Settlement 17 May 1921.

[6] Ibid, S. Goddard to the Director of SS 9 July 1921.

[7] Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, http://Ancestry.com.au

Sources used to compile this entry:

State Records NSW:  Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers loan files;  [12/6986 No. 4104], John Stphen Goddard.

National Archives of Australia:  B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Dossiers, ( John Stephen Goddard) online: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=4770245