(Editor's note: New information has come to light regarding the life of W. J. D. Goodall. See Vuilleumier, Auk 123:595–595, 2006).
William Jack Davies Goodall, “one of the three pioneers of modern Chilean ornithology,” a Corresponding Fellow of the AOU (1952) and co-recipient of the Brewster Memorial Award (1973), was born on 13 September 1892 at St. Jean d'Acre Cottage, Kings Road, Bembridge, Isle of Wight, England. The son of William Henry Goodall and Alma Louise Callaway, Jack had three younger sisters: Luisa Mary, Frances Josefina, and Almita Bessie. Jack was the nephew of Jeremiah Matthews Goodall FZS (1862–1939), an oologist and a founding member of the Isle of Wight Natural History Society. [Note: At no time did he add his mother's surname, Callaway, to follow that of Goodall].
Jack Goodall arrived at Iquique, Chile, late in 1912, to work as an accountant and bookkeeper for the Compañía Agua Santa, a nitrate production company whose product was essential for British munitions production during World War I. A friend and eventual co-author, Alfred William Johnson, had begun work with the same company earlier in 1912 and by 1925 was general manager. The mine closed in 1930 as a result of the Great Depression, and Johnson and Goodall moved to Santiago late in 1931. The first volume of Las Aves de Chile listed the authors alphabetically as Goodall, Johnson, and Philippi. Goodall was the artist, Johnson the chief author, and Philippi provided information about the bird-skin collections and measurements. The book was published in Spanish (1946), followed by the second volume in 1951 and two supplements. A second, updated edition was published in English (1965–1967). This was the “first unified treatise on the birds of Chile.” Additional biographical details about Goodall, references to his co-authors, Alfred William Johnson OBE and Dr. Rodulfo Amando Phillipi Bañados, and photographs of their gravesites, are available in Houston C. S., F. M. Jaksic, and E. C. Nelson, “Jack Goodall (1892–1980), ornithologist and artist of ‘Las Aves de Chile’: Some biographical notes,” Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 84:461–463, 201.
