Swami Vivekananda                           

J.J. Goodwin

1870-1898

Swami Vivekananda wrote: "Those who think they have been helped by any thought of mine, ought to know that almost every word of it was published through the untiring and most unselfish exertions of Mr. Goodwin...a disciple of never-failing devotion, a worker who knew not what tiring was...."

When Vivekananda's English disciple, J.J. Goodwin, died in 1898 an obituary was published in the Tribune of Lahore, which was in turn printed in the Indian Mirror. A copy was sent to Goodwin's mother (who, according to her great grandaughter Margaret marklew) lived to the age of 102.

She died in Ewell, Surrey, during the second world war, closely followed by her daughter (Goodwin’s sister).

The Tribune of Lahore wrote: We are deeply grieved to learn of the death, from enteric fever, of Mr J.J. Goodwin who came out to India as a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, and whom many people will remember in Lahore. Mr Goodwin was quite a young man, and we mourn his early death as that of a personal friend for whom we had a high regard. In Lahore, Mr Goodwin became a particular favourite with children, and hundreds of them were to be found always following him and asking him to share their simple games. Of all Swami Vivekananda's disciples that we saw here he was undoubtedly the most devoted, single-minded and capable. He was a journalist of considerable ability, and as a shorthand reporter we doubt whether he had any equal in India. Swami Vivekananda's speeches were mostly reported by him, Sanskrit and all. For some time Mr Goodwin joined the staff of the Madras Mail, where he was soon appreciated and was sent to Utacamund as its special correspondent. His pure life and gentle ways soon made him a general favourite. One of the truest and gentlest of natures we have known has been cut off in the early dawn of manhood, furnishing one more example of the saying that those whom the gods love die young.