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George and Hilda Goode |
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George Davis Goode was born in Port Royal in 1882. His father, who was a ship’s carpenter and also kept a small grocery shop, made sure that his son, and his daughter, Florence, received as good an education as possible. The children attended the Government Elementary School, and then were taught by tutors paid for by their father. They also received music lessons, at which George did so well that by the age of 15 he was the organist at St Peter’s Church. Later as his ability as an organist became known he was appointed organist at the Kingston Parish Church in 1906, and then at St Michael’s in 1910, where he served until 1961. From this time he became a close friend of another bright young organist, Samuel Kitchen, of the East Queen Street Baptist Church. In 1909 he married Hilda Dawkins, whom he had met when he was at the Parish Church where she was a member of the choir, and to whom he had been giving music lessons.
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George Goode also became a competent scientist. After gaining an unpaid job as an apprentice at the Government Laboratory at Hope in 1903, he quickly improved his qualifications; by 1905 he was Second Assistant Chemist in the Sugar Department, and in 1907 started teaching agricultural science. In 1910, when the Farm School was set up, he was appointed a master there. From 1912 he worked on the clerical side of the Ministry of Agriculture, holding different posts of responsibility until his retirement in 1942.
The Farm School
George Goode is, however, chiefly to be remembered for his contributions to music in Jamaica. In 1909 he and Samuel Kitchen started the Kingston Glee Singers, who delighted audiences with their unaccompanied singing until the early 1930s. In 1913, as organist at St Michael’s, he organised a festival in honour of the great Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, who had died in the previous year. The festival was a musical triumph, though it failed financially.
Goode’s most memorable contribution was his involvement with the Diocesan Festival Choir which he conducted from its inception in 1925 until his retirement on grounds of ill health in 1952. The choir’s annual concerts served ‘as a unifying centre where people of various racial origins, religious persuasions, political parties, and walks of life meet for several months each season and work together happily at the fascinating task of endeavouring to create beauty through the music of the human voice.’ After George Goode’s retirement the Choir continued under the dedicated leadership of Hazel Lawson-Street.
George Goode taught many pupils to play the organ, and was involved in most musical activities of the period. He gave lectures on musical, scientific and religious topics. In 1952 he was awarded the Gold Musgrave Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music in Jamaica. Only one person had been awarded the Gold Medal before this – Edna Manley in 1943. He died on April 10 1963, mourned alike by Jamaicans and those abroad who valued his dedicated service to the promotion and appreciation of music in his homeland. His funeral at St Michael’s was preceded by an hour and a half of music.
Hilda Dawkins was born in 1885, and she had three sisters, Sarah, Ella and Emily, but there is no further information available so far about her family and education. She met her husband through their shared interest in music, and she supported him in all his musical endeavours throughout their married life. However, Mrs Goode was a musician in her own right, and also was actively involved in a number of other kinds of activity.
She was a leading member of the Kingston Glee Singers, and was also much in demand as a solo performer in various musical events, especially church functions. In 1914, for instance, at a lecture by the Rev T Gordon Somers, at St John’s, Hannah Town, on the Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, she sang two selections from his works, set to music by Samuel Coleridge Taylor. In 1922, at a function at St Michael’s, chaired by Dr C H B Armstrong, she sang ‘Thou O God be my protector’ to a ’cello accompaniment. Accounts of her performances constantly refer to the ‘sweetness’ of her soprano voice.
Hilda Goode was equally well known as a social worker, and served on a number of Government Boards. She was a chairman of the Jamaica Save the Children Fund; made a J P in 1957, she served on the Juvenile Court.
She died in London in August 1965, while visiting her son and his family. Her body was flown back to Kingston for burial. As for her husband, the funeral at St Michael’s was preceded by a musical tribute from her fellow musicians.
She died in London in August 1965, while visiting her son and his family. Her body was flown back to Kingston for burial. As for her husband, the funeral at St Michael’s was preceded by a musical tribute from her fellow musicians.
George and Hilda Goode had three children, two daughters, Ruth and Helena, and one son, Coleridge, whose early musical training prepared him to become a well-known and respected jazz bassist in the U.K., where he made his home from the 1930s. He celebrated his 90th birthday in November 2004, still playing.
[written a decade ago]
