Jack Goodall (1892-1980), ornithologist and artist of "Las aves de Chile": Some biographical notes

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

William Jack Davies Goodall, “one of the three pioneers of modern Chilean ornithology” (Vuilleumier 2006), a Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) (Wolfson 1953) and co-recipient of the AOU’s Brewster Memorial Award in 1973 (Banks 1974), was born on 13 September 1892 at his parents’ home, St. Jean d’Acre Cottage, Kings Road, Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, England (certifi ed copy of an entry in register, Isle of Wight [FD 968782, 15 September 2010]). By April 1911, when he signed the Census Schedule for 52 Oxford Gardens, North Kensington, London (see below), he had dropped his fi rst name and thereafter was known generally as Jack (Davies) Goodall. Although Goodall lived most of his life in Chile, a country with a strong Spanish influence where an individual uses a two-name “surname” - the fi rst being the father’s and the second the mother’s - there is no known basis for Vuilleumier’s (2006) indication that he ever used the name “Jack Goodall Callaway”.Jack’s father was William Henry Goodall (born c. 1855) (the surname was sometimes spelled Goodhall in the mid-1800s), who gave his occupation as “scientific chemist” when his son’s birth was registered. Jack’s mother was Alma Louise Callaway (born c. 1859). William Henry Goodall and Alma Callaway were married in 1883 in St. Helens, Isle of Wight. The 1911 English census returns indicates that the couple had been married for 27 years and had had four children. The eldest, our subject William Jack Davies Goodall, born nine years after his parents married, was followed by three sisters: Luisa Mary, Frances Josefi na and Almita Bessie. It is noteworthy that in 1901, at least on Census Day, Mrs. Alma Goodall and her three daughters were at 134 St. Helens Green, home of her elderly parents, William and Henrietta Callaway. At the same time, William Jack D. Goodall (then aged eight) was also not staying with either of his parents but was listed at his aunt’s house at 12 St. Helens Green. She was Fanny H. Seymour, a widow aged 43 “living on (her) own means” with her daughters Marie and Cecily.A decade later, on Census Day, Sunday 2 April 1911, Jack was again away from the family home studying to be a naval architect (the profession of one of his uncles, Frank Clement Goodall), and “passed the night” at 52 Oxford Gardens, North Kensington, west London. He fi lled in the return for the house and signed it. Jack listed himself as “nephew”, because the owner of 52 Oxford Gardens was another uncle, Jeremiah Matthews Goodall FZS (1862-1939) also of The Nest, Bembridge. Jeremiah was probably a most infl uential person in Jack Goodall’s life, more so than his own father or his uncle Frank, although the evidence is entirely circumstantial. J. M. Goodall was a founding member of the Isle of Wight Natural History Society in 1919 and one of its original vice-presidents (L. Snow, pers. comm.). He was especially interested in birds’ eggs (Cole & Trobe 2000) and made several collecting trips in Argentina; it is possible that the main purpose of his visits to Argentina was business,