Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1900 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
Silver pocket watch, 7x5 cm.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
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.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Purchased from Annette Parrott, February 2022. Previously belonged to Ron Keogh of Walcha.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Inscription inside watch case: "Presented to the Rev. C.C. Godden by St Michael's Choir, Sydney, Aug. 31st 1900". Godden was curate of St Michael's, Surry Hills (Flinders St), from 1899-1900.
Watch face labelled: A.W.W. Co. Waltham Mass. - American Waltham Watch Company.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted. Handle with care.