BELLONA and RUGBY

Sadly an LM(E) named William Goodwin of Bellona was injured and subsequently died while playing rugby in Plymouth on 12 March, 1956.  Does anyone remember what team Bellona was playing and what sort of funeral did William have?  This is a long shot but someone out their may remember.   The long shot paid off and we now have a number of photos of the funeral.  Click HERE to view.

William Goodwin was born in Shannon, New Zealand on 23 December 1930 and he married Betty and they were living at 48 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. William and Betty had only been married a year marrying in 1955 and Betty was pregnant with William’s son when he died.  The child when born was also named William.

William whose service number was NZ14128  joined the RNZN as a Stoker on 24 Janaury 1952 at the age of 22.  He signed on for a period of 8 years.   When he died in 1956 he was taken to the Royal Navy Hospital Stonehouse and cause of death was recorded as cardiac arrest.  He is buried in Weston Hill Cemetery, Plymouth.  

The Gates to the Weston Mill Cemetery

The hospital where William was taken was the Royal Navy Hospital Stonehouse which was built in 1758–65 to a design by Alexander Rowehead. The hospital housed 1,200 patients in sixty wards, its ten ward blocks being arranged around a courtyard with a central block containing the chapel, dispensary and staff housing. The design was influential in its time, its pattern of detached wards (arranged so as to minimise spread of infection) foreshadows the ‘pavilion’ style of hospital building which was popularised by Florence Nightingale a century later. Patients were landed directly from Stonehouse Creek (now playing fields). The hospital closed in 1995 and is now a gated residential complex called Millfields.