Victor Goodfellow was born in Fleetwood in 1897 and baptised at St. Peter's Church on 26 September that year. He was the fourth of seven children of Belfast-born Hugh Alexander Goodfellow and his first wife Margaret Ellen Clarke who had married at the same church on 13 February 1893. Three of Victor's brothers died in infancy: John in 1894, Hugh in 1895 and John Stevens in 1899.
When the Census was taken on 31 March 1901, Hugh and Margaret were recorded at 2 Percy Street, Fleetwood along with their three surviving children: Hypatia (born in 1896), Victor and Jane Lilian (born in 1900). Hugh was a marine fireman/stoker. Another son, Clarence, was born in Fleetwood on 28 March 1902.
Sadly, Victor's mother died the following year, aged 33, leaving Hugh widowed with four children below the age of 8 and a job spent largely at sea. He remarried but not until 1918 and, in the 1911 Census, Hugh and the children were living at 44 Gamble Road, Thornton with Margaret's younger sister, Elizabeth, and her husband James Pater who had married at St. Peter's, Fleetwood on 28 October 1891.
Victor attended the Church Road Council School in Thornton and then studied at evening classes at Fleetwood Technical College whilst working for United Alkali at Burn Naze.
In June 1915, he joined the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Blackpool and was sent overseas on 23 September later that year. In was whilst serving in Salonika that Victor was killed in action on 19 September 1918. He was aged 21 and unmarried. Pte. Victor Goodfellow, 18901, 9th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment is buried in Plot 6, Row B, Grave 16 at the Doiran Military Cemetery in northern Greece.
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