The red pin marks the Santa Cruz Islands. It also represents the end of one story and the beginning of another. The first is about James Goodenough.
He was born in Guildford, went to Westminster School and aged fourteen joined the Royal Navy. The real James Goodenough saw almost as much overseas service as the fictional Jack Aubrey. 1857 saw him at the capture of Canton in the Second Opium War. In 1863 he was promoted to Captain and the culmination of his career came in 1873 when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, in the rank of Commodore.
No doubt he would have risen further had he not had a mishap on the Santa Cruz Islands. The more enlightened of the natives took a dislike to their colonial oppressor and punctured him with poisoned arrows. He died on board HMS Pearl in 1875 and is buried in Sydney. That’s the end of that story.
Santa Cruz, as you know, is Spanish for Holy Cross. The Goodenoughs wanted to commemorate the Commodore and so it came about that Holy Cross Church was consecrated in King’s Cross in 1888. It is not the only memorial to James Goodenough. There is this fine bust of him in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital, by Count Gleichen. The Count was a man of two parts. As well as being a competent sculptor calling himself Gleichen, he had a distinguished naval career and should really be called Admiral Victor Ferdinand Franz Eugen Gustaf Adolf Constantin Friedrich of Hohenlohe-Langenburg GCB. Hard to believe but true and he managed this multi-tasking by sculpting on his retirement from the navy. You have probably, unknowingly, seen his work. He did the statue of Alfred the Great in Wantage and that of Frederick Gye at the Royal Opera House.
But we digress – back to Holy Cross Church. I paid a visit and took note of the bell at the west end of the church. You can just see it in my photograph; it is the bell from HMS Pearl. Inside the church there is a plaque dedicated to James Goodenough but the church was locked, as so often is the case these days. I will eventually get in as I have accepted an invitation to a Carol Service there in December.
