Collection 422 - Godden family papers

C.C. Godden was born in Victoria and studied under Nathaniel Jones at Perry Hall, Bendigo and then at Moore College, Sydney. He was ordained in 1900 and worked as curate at St Michael's Surry Hills. He then travelled to Norfolk Island for training at the Melanesian Mission, before going to Omba/Ambae, Vanuatu as a missionary in 1901. He married Eva Dearin while on leave in Sydney in 1905 and they returned to Vanuatu in 1906. He was murdered by a local man, Alamemea, who had been pressed into working on the Queensland cane fields and bore a grudge against white man for the treatment he had received in prison for attempted murder. His daughter Ruth was born in 1907. Godden is remembered as a martyr.

Dr Ruth Godden is the daughter of Charles and Eva Godden, born the year after Charles was murdered in Vanuatu. She studied education at Sydney University, and spent twelve years as a school teacher. She then returned to Sydney University to study medicine and became a general practitioner. In 1959 she moved to Murrurundi where she worked as the local doctor. In the 1960s she travelled to Vanuatu and spent some time as the doctor in charge of the Godden Memorial Hospital in Lolowai. She is the author of 'Lolowai: the story of Charles Godden and the western Pacific' (1967).
Sources: 'Murrurundi G.P. passes' Quirindi Advocate, 23 May 1990.

Eva May Dearin was born in Sydney and attended Fort Street Public School. She married Charles Christopher Godden in December 1905 and accompanied him to New Hebrides (Vanuatu). After his death in 1906, she returned to Sydney and lived with Rev Arthur Smith, Rector of St Paul's Church Bankstown, and his family. Her daughter Ruth was born in 1907. Eva had a long involvement with the Girl Guides Association and the St John's Ambulance Nursing Cadet Corps. From 1927 onwards she was the organist at St Paul's Bankstown, and also served as Superintendent of the Sunday School. She taught Scripture in local schools. In 1931 she established the First Bankstown company of Girl Guides.

Sources: Quirindi Advocate, 21 August 1964.