John Charles Goodchild was born in Southwark, London on March 30, 1898. He was educated at the Strand School in London. In 1913 the family emigrated to South Australia, where John worked as a signpainter before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. The infantry division subsequently fought at Gallipoli between April and December 1915. After the war he was commissioned by the Australian Government to produce a series of thirty six pen drawings of war graves for the book Where Australians Rest, published in Melbourne 1920.

Returning to Adelaide, he resumed studies with the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts, and produced a book of drawings of Adelaide landmarks and taught etching at the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1923 he held a one-man exhibition of his etchings in Adelaide and participated in an exhibition in Sydney. In 1926 he married fellow South Australian artist Doreen Rowley. They returned to London to studyat the Central School of Arts and Crafts for two years. In 1929 they established a studio in Adelaide and John began exhibiting his water colours with the South Australian Society of Arts of which he was a prominent member and its president 1937-1940. He was appointed to the board of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery in 1938, and served in that capacity for much of the next thirty years. He served as principal of the School of Arts and Crafts from 1941 to 1945. He had an Exhibition of etchings and pen and ink and pencil drawings by John C. Goodchild in Adelaide at Tyrrell's Ltd, in 1923.

John Charles Goodchild died in Adelaide, South Australia on February 9, 1980.