George Godfrey

Who was George Godfrey?

George Fuller Godfrey CBE was an English-born Australian journalist and trade unionist.

Godfrey was born in Battersea in London to schoolteacher Francis George Godfrey and Millie, née Fuller. He was educated at Strand School and won a mathematics scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1926. During the general strike in 1926 he enlisted as a special constable. In 1927 he emigrated to Australia, arriving in 1927 in Melbourne. He taught mathematics for a term at Essendon High School before being employed by The Argus in May. In 1930 he moved to Sydney to work for the afternoon broadsheet the Sun, of which he became a sub-editor and relieving editor. He married a clerk, Phyllis Berenice Alethia Carling, at St Augustine's Church of England in Neutral Bay on 21 June 1932.

In 1927, Godfrey joined the Australian Journalists' Association; he was elected to the state committee in 1934 and 1940 and was state president 1941–44 and 1953–63. He was awarded the gold honour badge in 1944. Godfrey was elected federal president of the AJA in 1963, serving until 1974. He was a long-term campaigner for the Australian Press Council, which was finally established in 1976.