Mr. Frederick Buck Goodman

Birmingham Post 9th June 1931

The Doyen of Birmingham City Magistrates

Mr. F. B. Goodman’s Work in Many Spheres

The death took place yesterday at his residence, “Stanton,” Farquhar Road, Edgbaston, of Mr. Frederick Buck Goodman, aged eighty-four.

Mr. Goodman was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Birmingham in 1880, and was the doyen of the city Bench. At the annual meeting of the justices this year attention was called to the fact that Mr. Goodman had served as a magistrate fifty years, and a suggestion that the magistrates might present him with some tangible evidence of their appreciation of his long service was referred to the General Purposes Committee.

Mr. Goodman was born in Edgbaston on March 4, 1847, the eldest son of John Dent Goodman, and was educated at Harborne, Wimbledon and Paris. In 1865 he entered his father’s merchant business of Scholefield, Sons and Goodman, and in 1872 became a partner in the firm under the new title of Scholefield, Goodman and Sons. He retired from active work when, in 1912, the business was converted into a private limited company. On behalf of his business he had visited Canada, the United States, the West Indies, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and South Africa.

For many years he was closely associated with the Chamber of Commerce. He was first elected a member of the council in 1892, and became president in 1898, a position he held until 1904. During his chairmanship, with the active co-operation of the late Mr. H. C. Field, he carried out a complete reorganisation of the Chamber. For several years he served as chairman of the Export Merchants’ Section.

In 1875 Mr. Goodman was appointed one of the guardians of the Standard of Wrought Plate in the Birmingham Assay Office, in 1906 one of the wardens and in 1914 chairman. He was appointed Commissioner of Income-tax in 1900. Greatly interested in philanthropic work, he was a trustee of the General Provident Institution and of Lench’s Trust. He was also a trustee of St. Mark’s, St. Asaph’s and St. Thomas-in-the-Moors churches, as well as of the church fund which was founded on the demolition of Christ Church. He was honorary secretary of the Church Extension Fund (now merged in the Bishop of Birmingham’s Fund) for fourteen years, from 1885 to 1899, and was elected one of the lay representatives for the diocese of Birmingham in the House of Laymen. He was also connected with Hollier’s Charity, the Birmingham Eye Hospital and the Institution for the Blind.

A staunch conservative, he took an active part in his younger days in politics. From 1883 to 1890 he was chairman of the Edgbaston Ward Conservative Association. As a young man, from 1866 to 1871, he held a lieutenant’s commission in the Birmingham Volunteer Brigade, and took part in the famous review before Queen Victoria in Hyde Park. He was an original member of the Birmingham Athletic Club. He married, in 1873, Annie Mary, daughter of Dr. C.T. Wilkinson (Archdeacon of Totnes).

The funeral will take place at Edgbaston Old Church on Thursday.