Tom Goodey 1885-1953

Abstract

The sudden death of Tom Goodey, while on his way home from a meeting of the Society of Friends on the evening of 7 July 1953, unexpectedly robbed nematology of its foremost exponent and applied biology of one of its most engaging and vital personalities. Science is not the only loser, for his varied talents, wide interests and great energy, had combined to make him prominent in many other activities. Born at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, on 28 July 1885, Tom was the ninth and last child of Thomas and Hannah Goodey. His mother ( née Clayson), the daughter of an agricultural worker, died when he was two; his early childhood was largely supervised by his oldest sister and his boyhood by his step-mother. His father, like his grandfather, was a leather worker, who had started work in a skin yard at the age of seven; what his father lacked in formal schooling, he more than made up in initiative and industry, for he rose first to be a skilled machine operator and then to run a small boot factory of his own. For one in his circumstances, Thomas Goodey was an unusual man, and young Tom obviously learnt much from his father that coloured his whole life: an ability to work hard and a respect for those who do so, skill in the use of tools, an interest in natural history and gardening, and a love of music.