[Editor: This brief obituary for W. T. Goodge was published in the “Personal items” section of The Bulletin, 2 December 1909.]
[Obituary: W. T. Goodge]
W. T. Goodge, whose name has been at the bottom of fathoms of verse in THE BULLETIN and other papers, died at North Sydney last week after a short illness.
Goodge’s Muse never flew very high; but as an ingenious versifier on topical subjects he had few, if any, rivals in Australia. He was a rhyming dictionary on two energetic legs; if Goodge couldn’t find a word to jingle with another, then it could be safely said that the other word hadn’t a rhyming mate in all the world.
He did much country press work and published one volume of his verses — “Hits, Skits and Jingles.”
Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney), 2 December 1909, p. 18 (col. 2)
Editor’s notes:
Whilst the above obituary says that W. T. Goodge died “after a short illness”, this is contradicted by an article in The Referee, which said “Owing to Mr. Goodge’s long illness his savings were exhausted in expenses, and his widow and three young children are therefore left unprovided for”.
See: “The late Mr. W. T. Goodge (“Billy Badge”)”, The Referee (Sydney, NSW), 8 December 1909, p. 12
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
I wonder who the late Mr. Goodge’s British relatives were…? As my maiden name is Goodge and my family immigrated to the States from Great Britain. I know family lore is that we had a family relative who went off to live in Australia but that was all I ever knew about him. I’m only looking into it now because I’m watching about the zoo in Sydney.