Warner, Goodwin

Born January 17, 1887, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Son of William P. and Hetty Rogers Goodwin Warner. Educated Cambridge and Thatcher schools, California, Noble and Greenough School, Boston, and Harvard University, Class of 1909. In business, Stone and Webster, Boston; farmed at Littleton, Massachusetts; traveled in tropics. Joined American Field Service, June 2, 1917; attached Transport Sections 184 and 133. Enlisted U. S. Army Motor Transport Corps; commissioned Second Lieutenant Q. M. C. Died of pneumonia, June 29, 1918, American Camp Hospital Number 4, at Joinville-le-Pont, Seine. Buried Suresnes, Seine.

"NOBODY ever saw him down on his luck." This a close friend writes of Goodwin Warner, adding, "It was a source of wonder that he was never heard to complain of his misfortune." For in childhood had begun his weary struggle against a severe chronic asthma. It affected his entire career and caused an amount of actual suffering which few of his friends ever realized, because he hid it. Yet through all his life he retained his "very keen sense of humor and an even disposition which allowed him to take things as he found them." Courage and good nature were two of his many fine qualities and although long periods of illness prevented his joining in the life and activities of his friends, "he made hundreds of them."

After two years in California and two winters in the Maine woods, he went to Noble and Greenough School in Boston and entered Harvard in the Class of 1909, with which he graduated. As a sophomore he recovered from a dangerous attack of pneumonia, "largely," writes a friend, "because of the grit and determination which his chronic sickness had developed." After graduating he entered the office of Stone and Webster, Boston, but unable to stand the confinement of office work, he bought a farm in Littleton, Massachusetts, and began raising apples. About a year before the war he sold his orchards and devoted the intervening time chiefly to travel in the tropics, studying natural history. This was his hobby, his interest being most particularly in ornithology, and he was an authority on New England birds.

With the coming of war Goodwin, anxious to get into the service and not waiting for the departure of the regular organizations, sailed independently for France, joined the American Field Service, and in June, 1917, was sent to Transport Section 184 of the Reserve Mallet, where he became Sous-Chef. In October, having graduated from the French Automobile Officers' School at Meaux, he became Commandant Adjoint of T. M. 133. When the American Army took over the Reserve, Goodwin was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and placed in command of Company 360 of the Motor Transport Corps. The Commanding Officer of the American Mission wrote that he "rendered very valuable and efficient service. During the past critical weeks his efforts and enthusiasm were continued and indefatigable, and won for him the deep appreciation of the French and American officers associated with him, and his promotion to the command of a groupe which was announced during his last illness." For a month or more in memory of him this groupe bore his name.

During the spring of 1918 his company was under excessive strain and although he already felt the touch of the influenza epidemic, Goodwin Warner threw himself into the work with every bit of his energy. As a conscientious leader he stayed for days and nights on the road with his men. He fell sick, pneumonia developed rapidly, and on June 26th he was taken to the hospital at Joinville-le-Pont, east of Paris, where he died two days later.

Commandant Mallet spoke thus at the military funeral: "His fellow officers cannot speak too highly of him as a good and trusty friend; his men have always known him as a kind and reliable leader. As for myself, it is my desire to acknowledge before you all the deep debt of gratitude the French Army owes to Lieutenant Warner, who came to serve our country before his own needed him and who has ever since been performing his military duties with such devotion and efficiency. In the name of the Director of the French Automobile Service, in the name of my Reserve, I wish him a last farewell, and address the expression of our deep sympathy to his family and to those who are mourning to-day an affectionate friend, a promising officer, and a perfect gentleman."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921