Song dedicated to Titanic baby (From Wiltshire Times)

Song dedicated to Titanic baby

3:00pm Friday 10th October 2008

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A SONG dedicated to a Melksham baby who perished in icy waters after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, will be played for the first time at a concert in Seend later this month.

Local band Sackful of Sovereigns will be at Cleeve House on October 18, where they will sing their self-penned song An Unknown Child, dedicated to baby Sidney Leslie Goodwin, in addition to Bound For The Promised Land, a song about Sidney’s family, seven of whom died after the liner struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

The band were inspired to write their first track after songwriter Colin Harrison, 52, from Bowerhill, discovered the history of the Goodwin family and their Melksham connection. The Goodwins lived in Canon Square, just a stone’s throw from St Michael’s Church.

Mr Harrison said: “We write a lot of our own material so we like to look for a local connection.

At around that time, the Titanic film came out and there were articles in the papers about a woman from Melksham who had been researching the history of the family.

“I think also, that as I had young children at that time, it really struck a chord with me about what it must have been like for a family on that ship.”

It was the release of Bound For The Promised Land in 1998 that led to a chance meeting with a living member of the Goodwin family, when a retired lecturer from Wisconsin in the USA contacted Mr Harrison.

Carol Goodwin Goroff’s grandmother was the sister of Frederick Goodwin, the father of the Melksham family that died on the Titanic, and had heard about the band’s song on the internet.

She told the band she wanted a copy of their CD after being moved to tears when listening to it. She said it reminded her of the stories her grandmother had told her about the family tragedy.

Mr Harrison said Mrs Goodwin Goroff then came to England in 2006 to visit other members of their family, the band members and visited to Melksham.

Following this, the band kept in touch and in 2007 they received an email telling them that in a graveyard in Halifax, Novia Scotia, where many Titanic victims are buried, there was a headstone marked ‘An Unknown Child’.

Following DNA testing, the child was identified as 18- month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from Melksham and Mrs Goodwin Goroff wanted the band to write a song in Sidney’s memory.

Mr Harrison said: “Thinking back I remember that Carol had DNA testing kits with her when she came to visit the UK, so she may have known that this news was going to break I think she had been testing members of the family and taking DNA samples over here.”

After writing The Unknown Child, the song was played at a graveside commemoration service for Sidney earlier this year, but has not been played in public since.

Sackful of Sovereigns is made up up five members, including Mr Harrison and his wife Denise, 52.

Mr Harrison, a graphic designer, said the performance at Cleeve House is open to all and tickets are £6 available from Melksham Tourist Information Centre, Cleeve House by calling (01380) 827129 or by calling the band directly on (01225) 707659. For more information visit www.sackfulofsovereigns.co.uk.

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