David Goodall was born in 1931. One side of his family had Wexford ancestors who were on both sides of the 1798 Rising. Though he had no professional involvement in Anglo-Irish relations until 1982, Goodall had a lifelong scholarly interest in Irish and, especially, Wexford history. He was president of the Irish Genealogical Research Society from 1992-2012.

Goodall was educated at the Ampleforth Benedictine Abbey in Yorkshire, where he early exhibited the talents of the highly accomplished watercolorist he would later become. He earned a First in Classics at Trinity College, Oxford. He joined the British Foreign Office in 1956 and had a brilliant diplomatic career, culminating in his appointment to the vital role of British high commissioner to India in 1987. This was taken from his obituary in The Irish Times.

Mrs Patricia De Bernardi was a genealogist who researched the Gray family in County Wexford. The Gray and Goodall families were closely connected in Wexford during 1798. Patricia's work is included in an article written by Goodall, "A Divided Family in 1798: The Grays of Whitefort and Jamestown." [Journal of The Wexford Historical Society 1994-95]  I was in contact with Sir David for over 10 years and provided him with research on Nicholas Gray the Rebel. Sir David Goodall published an article in The Past Organ of the Ui Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 31, 2011-2012 Edition. The title is " A Postscript to 1798: Nicholas Gray and His Family in America."

Here is a link to Sir David Goodall's obituary in the The Telegraph.