1/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Austin John Bert Goulding was born in Cheltenham in 1885, the third son of Miriam and the late George Henry Golding of 7 Calcutta Terrace, Cheltenham and also of Melrose House, Mitre Street.
Prior to the war he was manager of The Horse & Groom pub in St George’s Place in Cheltenham, although in the 1911 Census he and his wife are shown as living in the Tottenham area of London.
He enlisted in the Army on 5 August 1914 and served with the Gloucestershire Regiment in the 1/5th Battalion. He arrived in France with them on 29 March 1915. He served with the Glosters for nearly four years before transferring to the Labour Corps (611 Agricultural company).
On 3 September 1918 he was discharged from the Army due to illness but was too ill to leave the Beechwood Hospital, Newport and he died there on 22 September 1918, age 33.
He left a widow, Laura (née Bosworth) whom he had married on 28 September 1910 and three children, the youngest being only eleven weeks old. After the war his family lived at Pengwaunydd, Newport.
Private Goulding’s funeral was held at Christ Church, Cheltenham where he is also is named on their War Memorial.
His remains were interred at Cheltenham Cemetery, where a standard Commonwealth War Grave Commission headstone now marks the grave. He is also commemorated on the Cheltenham Town Memorial and a photograph appears in The Graphic of 12 October 1918.
Researched by Graham Adams 15 January 2013 (revised 28 July 2021) with acknowledgement to ‘Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham in the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)