Service number:  23265

Battalion:  11th

Brendon Gooden, the great grandson of Thomas provided the following:

Thomas Herbert Gooden my great grandfather was born in Salford in 1880 and was the youngest of four children (two brothers and one sister) to his mother Martha and his father Thomas. He was probably born at the home address of 29 Tweed Street, Salford. His mother Martha died at the age of 34 when Thomas was only 2 years old.
The 1891 and 1901 census reports suggest Thomas was brought up, went to school and then worked in the Salford area. Aged 11 years old Thomas and the family had moved to 9 Clare Street, Salford and then in 1901 aged 21 he was living with his father at 8 West Dean Street, Salford and his occupation was as a grey cloth porter. The production of grey cloth in the cotton industry was very prevalent in the Salford area.
In 1907 Thomas then married Mary Ellen Perry who also lived in the Salford area and they had two children Elsie (in 1909) and my grandfather Thomas Herbert Daniel (in 1910). In 1911 he lived along with his family and also his mother and father in law at 45 Lord Duncan Street, Salford. This street would have stood near to the junction of Cross Lane and Eccles New Road in the area, which is now the roundabout at the start of the M602 motorway.
Thomas then fought and died aged 37 in World War 1. He was a private in the 11th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and his service number was 23265. The battalion was based in Ashton Under Lyne and saw much action during World War 1 from Gallipoli then Itlay and onto the Western front in France and Belgium
The action in which my great grandfather was killed was one of the series of battles that took place in Flanders in the summer and autumn of 1917, which collectively is known as the Third Battle of Ypres. Third Ypres was supposed to have as its strategic aim the liberation of the Belgian Channel ports and their denial to U-boat operation. One imperative that did exist was the need to attack the Germans and take the pressure of the French Army, which was beset by mutiny; another was Haig’s need to secure a victory before the Americans arrived. The immediate tactical aim of the offensive was the recapture of higher ground from which the German artillery could observe and accurately bombard any target in the vicinity of the last Belgian town in Allied hands, Ypres. 

He left a wife, Mary Ellen and a daughters Elsie and grandfather Thomas Herbert Daniel.