In 1956 English-trained artist Derek Pearse left Brooks, Robinson & Co. to become an independent stained glass artist and maker. Years later he confessed to taking this commission with him, convincing Mrs. Caroline Goldie that he had the skill to produce the memorial window. The completed window was all that artist and donor had hoped for: Mrs Goldie found that Derek Pearse had captured her son's likeness in the portrait of the young airman standing before the ascended Christ. Pearse filled the head of the left hand lancet with the badge of the RAAF, above the full length figure of the airman; the right hand light pictured the ascended figure of Christ. Three windows in the church were installed by Mrs Goldie: a memorial to another son Robert, who lost his life serving with the Australian Army andone in memory of her husband, Alexander, installed some time after his death in 1962. A bench installed in the grounds of the Anglican Church, Woodend was another memorial to Sergeant John Goldie.
After leaving Geelong Grammar School, John Goldie joined the Commercial Banking Company, Sydney. He joined the RAAF and, after initial training in Victoria, he sailed for England as a Sergeant Air Gunner to No. 20 Operational Training Unit, RAF Bomber Command at Elgin Station, Morayshire. He was one of a Wellington bomber crew when an air accident at Rothes, Scotland took his life on 15 February 1942. His burial at Lossiemouth on 19 February 1942 was preceded by the funeral service of Goldie and his friend ,Sergeant Jack Bishop of Mount Gambier, who was the only other Australian crew member on the flight.
References & Acknowledgements
AWM Roll of Honour; NAA: A705, 163/118/279; James Affleck, Geelong Grammarians at World War Two, The Old Geelong Grammarians Incorporated, Corio, 2002, p.29; The Corian, May 1942.
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