Alfred Goodwin

Like his fellow Great Britain modern pentathletes at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, Alfred Goodwin was an excellent all-round sportsman. A serving officer with the Suffolk Regiment, he won the pole vault at the 1928 Army Athletics Championships and, as a keen golfer, won his regiment’s Colonel’s Cup in 1931 and 1932. He also played cricket for his regiment, was involved with their boxing team, played football for the Army Crusaders, and fenced for the regiment’s Masks Club.

With the Suffolks, he served at the Army Physical Training School at Aldershot for a while before being appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor of Madras early in 1935, only to return a few months later and take up his new role as adjutant of his depot at Bury St Edmunds. During World War II Goodwin served in the Middle East, where he was recognised for giving distinguished service. He was captured in Greece in 1941 and taken to Germany as a prisoner of war. In 1946 he was honoured with the OBE for his gallant services in the field.

Goodwin was manager of the British team at the 1949 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in Sweden. Just two months later, at the age of 47, he married for the first time but sadly, within four months, lieutenant-colonel Alfred Goodwin died.