Born at Meltham, Yorkshire on 26 April 1863, the third child and only son of Edward Coleman Gooddy, MA, Glasgow, the owner of a cotton mill, and Jane Barker, his first cousin and wife. Being of delicate health he was educated privately by his sisters and was afterwards sent to two small preparatory schools where he was badly taught and poorly fed. He entered Clifton College in 1877, but left in the following year when his father's mill, which was not insured, was burnt down. Having borrowed sufficient money he entered St Thomas's Hospital where he acted as house surgeon and ophthalmic house surgeon and was clinical assistant at the Eye Hospital in Moorfields. For a time he was resident medical officer at the York Dispensary, and later was in the employment of the British South African Company's police. Returning to Britain he practised at Llandudno, where he was honorary physician and surgeon to the Sarah Nicol Hospital. During the war he received a commission as temporary lieutenant, RAMC, and was promoted captain on 13 April 1918. He acted as deputy commissioner, medical service, Ministry of Pensions for the Potteries area, Stoke-on-Trent. On demobilization he settled in practice at Cavendish, Suffolk, where he died on 6 November 1937. He married on 9 June 1900 his second cousin, Mary Cavin Barker; she survived him without children.