IN THE summer of 1865 William Goodwin, a draughtsman at the Ordnance Survey in Southampton, married local woman Elizabeth Young.

She was the daughter of William Young a brewer and publican of the Tree House Inn in Love Lane, known today as St Mary’s Road.

Goodwin was originally from Maidstone and a corporal in the Royal Engineers.

Initially they lived at the Tree House Inn then set up their own home at 84 Milton Road close to the Ordnance Survey in London Road.

They later moved to Shirley Road and then to Bitterne Park from where William travelled to work on the newly electrified trams.

William and Elizabeth Goodwin had six children, including a son they named Paul Sidney but known as Sidney.

Sidney’s father was an accomplished amateur artist, as were many of the engravers and colourists at the Ordnance survey, and he often exhibited his work at the Southampton Art Society (SAS) which had been formed in 1885.

Sidney followed in his father’s footsteps becoming an accomplished water colourist and was sufficiently talented to make a living professionally.

He exhibited at the SAS when he was just fourteen years old.

Sidney wasn’t the only professional artist in the family for his Uncle Albert, his father’s brother, had studied with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Arthur Hughes and Ford Madox Brown and had gone on to exhibit at the Royal Academy and enjoyed international acclaim.

He toured Europe with John Ruskin and later toured Canada with his nephew Sidney.

Sidney drew inspiration from the sights around Southampton producing wonderful watercolours of local scenes and exhibiting them at the SAS.

Sidney Goodwin’s paintings are usually instantly recognisable as they usually feature a horse and cart.

He went on to travel extensively painting and exhibiting in Ireland before making his home in Australia where for some reason he adopted his mother’s maiden name and was known as William Young.

He died in Australia in 1944.

The second Sidney Goodwin was born in September 1910 at Melksham in Wiltshire. He was the youngest of the six children of Frederick and Augusta Goodwin who were originally from London.

Frederick Goodwin had a brother who had emigrated to the USA and on a visit home persuaded Frederick that his future lay in America.

He and Augusta agreed so the family packed their belongings and booked third class passage to America on the SS New York.

Their tickets were from Southampton to New York but because of the National Coal Strike the SS New York was delayed and the family were transferred to the RMS Titanic, a newly built ship of the White Star Line which was making its maiden voyage.

As was usual for third class or steerage passengers the family were separated with Frederick and his sons berthed in the bow or front of the ship and Augusta and their daughters together with 19-month-old Sidney at the stern.

They sailed on the April 10, 1912, but near midnight on April 14 the infamous ship hit an iceberg and began to sink.

By the time the Goodwin family and many other steerage passengers arrived on deck all the lifeboats had gone and the entire family drowned when the ship sank.

On April 17, 1912 the cable ship Mackay-Bennett was employed in recovering bodies from the sea, following the sinking, when her crew came across the body of a small boy they estimated to be about two years old.

The men were so affected by the discovery that they placed a pendant inside his coffin which simply said “Our Babe” and paid for a monument inscribed “To the Memory of an unknown child” to be placed on his grave in the Fairview Cemetery at Halifax, Nova Scotia. This child’s grave became a symbol for all the children lost in the sinking.

In 2007 Canadian researchers using DNA testing were able to identify the child as Sidney Goodwin.

His body was the only one from the family to be recovered.

Godfrey Collyer is a tour guide with SeeSouthampton.co.uk .