Julia Bachope Goddard (11 July 1825 – 30 September 1896), was a British children's writer of more than 25 books,

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevit ...

campaigner, journalist and artist.

Early life

She was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

on 11 July 1825, the eldest daughter in a family of ten children of Samuel Aspinwall Goddard (1796–1886) and his wife, Jemima Goddard, née Bachope (1800–1875). Samuel Aspinwall Goddard was born in

Brookline Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri * Brookline, New Hampshire * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookline, Vermont See ...

, Massachusetts (a town 6 miles west of Boston), in the United States, and they were descendants of the ancient

Goddard family The Goddard family were a prominent landed family chiefly living in the northern region of the English counties of Wiltshire and Hampshire and the western part of Berkshire, between the Tudor period and the early 20th century. The Goddard fa ...

of North Wiltshire. Her father moved to Birmingham in c.1820, where he was a gun manufacturer and iron merchant and exhibited at the 1851

The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

. He also wrote pamphlets on free trade and currency reform and ran a multi-year writing campaign in The Birmingham Daily Post and The Times of London to try and convince the British public and parliament to side with the Union in the US Civil War. The family were very political, but neither Julia or Samuel ever ran for public office. He was the United States' consul in Birmingham, and later became a naturalized British subject. Julia Bachope Goddard

Career

In 1863 Goddard published her first children's book, ''Karl and the Six Little Dwarfs'', and at least a further twenty-five were published over the rest of her career. Many of her books concentrated on animal welfare, itself mirroring her long-term commitment to helping animals receive more humane treatment, more "moderate humanitarianism", than the "more radical elements in the animal rights' movements or anti-vivisection". According to a contemporary account in the '' Animals' Friend'', Goddard was "one of the hardest and yet most unpretentious workers the movement has yet possessed".

Personal life

She never married.

Later life

Goddard suffered from extremely poor health from 1894 onwards after a severe case of

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

, and together with her failing eyesight, she had to stop writing. She was unmarried and lived with her sister, Fanny Delavan Goddard, in a cottage in

Little Aston Little Aston is a village in Staffordshire, England. It is located within the Lichfield District and is approximately south of the city of Lichfield. Formerly a separate settlement, it is in modern times contiguous with the built-up area of th ...

, near

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles sou ...

, Warwickshire. She died at her cottage as a result of a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on 30 September 1896.

Selected publications

* ''Karl and the Six Little Dwarfs'' (1863)
''More Stories''
(1863)
''The Boy and the Constellations''
(1866)
''Wonderful Stories from Northern Lands''
(1871)
''The Golden Journey and Other Verses''
(1875) * ''The Four Cats of the Tippertons and Other Stories About Animals'' (1881) * ''New Boy At Merton'' * ''The Search For The Gral'' * ''The Search For The Gral'' * ''Poems And Translations'' * ''Heard At Last'' * ''The Golden Weathercock'' * ''Brave Dorette'' * ''Mr. Lipcombe's Apples'' * ''Fairy Tales Of Other Lands'' * ''Joyce Dormers Story Vol 1'' * ''Joyce Dormers Story Vol 2'' * ''Thorns And Roses'' * ''Pride Comes Before A Fall'' * ''Song Book For Infants'' * ''The Birds Nest and other Songs For Children'' * ''Alison Brands Battle For Life'' * ''John Gardiner's Neighbours'' * ''Kasper And The Summer Fairies'' * ''Titurel'' * ''What Will She Do?''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, Julia Bachope 1825 births 1896 deaths British animal welfare workers British women children's writers Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands