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Sir Daniel was the grandson of the other more illustrious Sir Daniel Gooch (1816-1889), the great railway engineer of some considerable genius who designed over 60 different classes of steam locomotives, and was responsible for laying the first ever Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable between Great Britain and America.
Gooch was born in Llanrwst. Denbigh.Wales, the only son of Sir Henry Daniel Gooch.and Mary Relsell Gooch. Sir Henry owned a slate quarry in Llanrwst. His birth certificate shows his name as Harry Fulthorpe Gooch. His parents must have had second thoughts and settled on Daniel, after his grandfather.
His father, Sir Henry, was born in Paddington, London, and the family at the turn of the century were living at 4 Park Place Villas, London, along with a number of servants in some considerable state of comfort and luxury. Gooch was educated at Trinity Hall. Cambridge.
In 1896 he married May Winifred Monro from Clewer Hill. Their marriage produced two sons and two daughters. Sir Henry died on Thursday 24th June 1897 and Daniel succeeded him as the 3rd Baronet.
In 1907 he bought the magnificent Hylands Estate near Chelmsford and made several improvements to Hylands House. During the next two or three years he expanded the estate by purchasing a number of surrounding estates and farms.
This 1903 Panhard et Levassor was originally owned by Gooch and was sold in 1919. Over the years it was entered in the London to Brighton Rally. The car still survives to this day.
The chosen Dog handler for the I.T.A.Expedition was one Dr. Ross, however Ross withdrew his services and Gooch was drafted in as a last minute substitute. Gooch’s qualifications for the job was that he was an expert breeder of Greyhounds and for years had followed the hunt. He sailed with the dogs on the La Negra from Liverpool on Monday 26th October 1914 bound for Buenos Aires. Chile, where he signed on board the Endurance as an able seaman.
Frank Wild was to write “There never was a better A.B. afloat than Sir Daniel Gooch. He obeyed orders promptly and was possessed of a keen sense of humour “. In that day and age there cannot have been many Knights of the Realm who went to sea with the rank of Able Seaman!
Gooch left the Expedition at South Georgia on Thursday 3rd December 1914. His home, Hylands House, had been requisitioned as a temporary war hospital and returned home to England to help with the supervision of its conversion.
He funded the medical equipment himself, and the 190 bed hospital between 14th August 1914 and early 1919, treated over 1500 war wounded patients.
Shackleton wrote “ We all regretted losing his cheery presence when we headed for the South”.
Sadly in 1915, Sir Daniel’s eldest son, Lancelot Daniel Edward Gooch, a midshipman in the Royal Navy was taken ill whilst serving on H.M.S. Implacable and died in Greece on Monday 4th October 1915.
In 1920,Gooch sold the Hylands Estate and moved to Tetchbury Mount, Totton, near Southampton. There, he was able to pursue his love of golf and sailing. He actually owned a 40 ton yacht (!) and some years earlier in 1910 had leased land that he owned at Widford, to Chelmsford Golf Club which provided them with a new 18 hole course, which remains the clubs home to this present today.
More sadness was to follow when at 5pm on Tuesday 26th July. 1921 his wife Lady May died after a long illness. Gooch himself was in ill health and in 1923 underwent surgery to amputate one of his legs. In early December of 1926 he became ill with pneumonia, and at 2pm on Wednesday 22nd December 1926 died at his home Tetchbury Mount, aged 57. He lies buried at Widford Church. Chelmsford. Essex.
The Baronetcy passed to his youngest son Robert Douglas Gooch born 19th September 1905.
SIR DANIEL FULTHORPE GOOCH
ONE OF THE WARDS AT SIR DANIEL’S HOME, HYLANDS HOUSE. CIRCA 1915
HYLANDS HOUSE, TODAY
With thanks to Chelmsford Library |
