World War I
As we approach the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, it is worth reflecting on the devastating effect it had on the home front, on families like the Goodes and villages like Haslingfield.
A George Goode trained as a fighter pilot in Upavon, Wiltshire, early in 1917. Life expectancy for fighter pilots at this time was less than two weeks after the completion of training. George lasted two months – he was reported missing in May.
Frederick Walter Goode was just 20 when he joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment fighting in France, in 1916. He died in October of that year, near the Somme. Seventeen other Haslingfield men died in the war, and their names are recorded on the war memorial in the churchyard.