First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield

Harry Dan GODFREY (1895–1917)

Harry Dan Godfrey (formerly McKenzie) was born at Pimlico, London in 1895, the son of Henry (or Harry) Thomas Godfrey (born in Old Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 26 March 1865) and Martha Wood McKenzie (born in Lossiemouth in Scotland and baptised there on 29 April 1861).

His parents were not married at the time of his birth, and so he originally took his mother’s surname:

• Harry McKenzie, later Harry Dan Godfrey, born in Kennington in Pimlico in 1895, registered in Chelsea district in fourth quarter).

Harry’s father’s movements indicate that he may have been a military man, and he is hard to find in the 1891 and 1901 censuses; but Harry’s paternal grandparents remained rooted in Old Headington.

At the time of the 1901 census Harry McKenzie (5) was staying in Old High Street with his grandparents: Henry Godfrey (70) was a carrier and Sarah Godfrey (67) was a home laundress, helped by her single daughter Harriet  (25). They described Harry as their nephew, but he was born in Pimlico he was obviously their illegitimate grandson, and he may have been living with them permanently.

Within two years of the census, Harry’s grandparents were dead: Sarah Godfrey (68) was buried in Headington Cemetery on 18 June 1902, and Henry Godfrey (74) on 11 April 1903.

Near the end of 1902, when Harry was six, his parents got married in Islington. Harry McKenzie became known as Harry Godfrey, and his parents had one more child:

• Dan Godfrey (born at Aldershot in 1904, birth registered in Farnham district second quarter).

Harry’s parents had settled in Headington by 1910, when his father Harry Thomas Godfrey is listed in Kelly’s Directory as a “jobmaster & cab proprietor, Highfield Livery stables”.

Harry’s father’s sister, Elizabeth Harriet Godfrey, had married the bricklayer James Henry Bateman at St Andrew’s Church on 10 February 1906, and at the time of the 1911 census Harry, who was now an apprentice of 15, spent the night with his uncle and aunt (who now had three children of their own) at Pangbourne House in Old High Street. His parents were not far away in Highfield parish at the present 99 Lime Walk (“Woodbine Cottage”, then numbered  59), and Harry’s brother Dan (6) was with them.

In the First World War Harry Dan Godfrey served in the the Royal Fusiliers, first in the 17th Battalion (S.) and then as a Serjeant in the 11th Battalion (Service No. 51841). He was killed in action at the Somme in France at the age of 21 on 17 February 1917 and was buried at the Regina Trench Cemetery, Grandcourt. He is listed on the Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield.

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Postscript

Harry’s parents

• Mrs Martha Wood Godfrey died at the age of 70 at Woodbine Cottage in Lime Walk, and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 2 September 1931.
• Harry Thomas Godfrey died at the age of 74 at the house of his younger son Dan (77 Old High Street) and was buried with his wife on 7 June 1939.

Harry’s brother

• Dan Godfrey (born 1904) was still living at 77 Old High Street in 1952.