One Lucky Devil: The First World War Memoirs of Sampson J. Goodfellow

Born in Scotland, Sampson J. Goodfellow emigrated to Toronto as a child. Like many young Canadian men, he returned to Europe to serve his new country in the First World War, first as a truck driver, then as a night navigator on Handley Page bombers.

Over a span of just six years, Sam witnessed Canada’s deadliest-ever tornado, sparred with world-champion lightweight boxers, survived seasickness and submarines, came under artillery fire at Vimy Ridge, was bombed by German aircraft while unloading shells at an ammunition dump at Passchendaele, joined the Royal Flying Corps, was top of his class in observer school, became a navigator, faced a court-martial for allegedly shooting up the King’s horse-breeding stables, survived being shot down by anti-aircraft fire, was captured at bayonet point and interrogated, became a prisoner of war in Germany...and, in the midst of all that, got engaged.

When Sam was listed as missing, the family of his fiancée went to a fortuneteller for news of his fate. “You couldn’t kill that devil,” she told them. “He is alive and trying to escape.” She was right.With a sharp eye, a keen mind, a strong body, and an acerbic tongue, Sam survived, as one RAF officer put it when he returned to England after the Armistice, “enough to be dead several times.”

“You have been through hell,” a military doctor told him, “and you have been very lucky as a soldier and airman.”

Sampson J. Goodfellow really was “one lucky devil.” This is his story, in his own words.

Sampson J. Goodfellow was an engineer, inventor and First World War veteran. Born in Scotland in 1892, he immigrated to Canada in 1902. He grew up in Toronto, where he apprenticed as a machinist. He worked briefly in Regina, Saskatchewan (where he was a member of the Regina Rugby Club, forerunners to today's Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club of the Canadian Football League), before returning to Toronto to attend Toronto Technical School. He enlisted in the Canadian Army and served as truck driver in France before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, becoming a navigator on a Handley Page bomber. Shot down over German territory, he finished the war in a POW camp. During the war he became engaged to Anne Owen (Nancy) Ridgway; they were married on January 2, 1919, and returned to Regina, where Sam worked in machine engineering, eventually becoming president of Western Machine and Engineering. He and his wife were great patrons of the arts in their adopted city. Late in life, in honour of his work as an inventor, businessman, and philanthropist, Sam received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Regina. Nancy died in 1974; Sam died in 1979.

Edward Willett is the author of more than 60 books of science fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Marseguro (DAW Books) won the Aurora Award (honouring the best in Canadian science fiction and fantasy) for Best Long-Form Work in English in 2009, and the second book in the Double Helix duology, Terra Insegura, was short-listed the following year. His young adult fantasy Spirit Singer (Tyche Books) won the Regina Book Award at the 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards. Several other of his books have been shortlisted for both the Aurora and the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Willett's most recent novel for DAW, Worldshaper, launches a new fantasy/science fiction series. Other recent titles include the Masks of Aygrima trilogy for DAW (written as E.C. Blake) and the five-book Shards of Excalibur YA fantasy series for Coteau Books. His non-fiction runs the gamut from science books to biographies to history, including Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw and Government House, Regina, Saskatchewan: An Illustrated History. Born in Silver City, New Mexico, Ed moved to Saskatchewan with his parents from Texas when he was eight years old, and grew up in Weyburn, where his father taught at Western Christian College. He earned a B.A. in journalism from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, and returned to Weyburn to being his career at the weekly Weyburn Review, first as a reporter/photographer (and columnist and cartoonist), and eventually as news editor. He moved to Regina in 1988 to become communications officer for the then-fledgling Saskatchewan Science Centre, and became a full-time freelance writer in 1993. For two decades Ed wrote a weekly science column that appeared in the Regina Leader Post and assorted other newspapers; an audio version also ran weekly on CBC Radio's Afternoon Edition in Regina for seventeen of those years. He has also appeared on CBC TV nationally to talk about science topics. In addition to writing, Ed is a professional actor and singer who has performed in numerous plays, musicals, and operas, as well as singing with various choirs, including the Canadian Chamber Choir, and, currently, the Prairie Chamber Choir. He lives in Regina with his wife, Margaret Anne Hodges, P. Eng., a past president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan, and their teenaged daughter, Alice. You can find Ed online at www.edwardwillett.com.