Mr Albert Edward Godsafe

Albert Edward Godsafe was born in Latchingdon, Essex in 1884, to Thomas and Eliza. Thomas was a farm labourer. At the time of the 1891 Census they were living at Little End, Stanford Rivers. Six children, including Albert are shown and it would appear from the birth places of the children that the family moved around seeking work. At the time of 1901 Census the family were living at Widford, near Chelmsford. Albert is shown as ‘working on farm.’
On the 23rd March 1907, Albert married Alice Porter at Stapleford Tawney, Essex and they were to have seven children over the next eight years:
Alice Mary (1907)
Albert Charles (1908)8
Thomas Charles (1909)
William George (1911)
Beatrice Maud (1912)
Albert John (1914), and
Ethel Frances (1915).
At the 1911 Census Albert and family were living at 2 Bells Cottages, Stapleford Tawney. His occupation is shown as a domestic groom and gardener.
In January 1915, with Alice expecting their seventh child, Albert volunteered to join the army. Aged 30 years and six months, he attested on the 15th January 1915 and joined at the Grenadier Guards depot in Caterham four days later. In June that year, his daughter, Ethel Frances, was born, and the following month, possibly as a result of complications during the birth of her child, Alice, aged just 30 years, died at the Stanford Rivers infirmary9.
With Albert in the army, care of the children appears to have been handed to Albert’s mother, Eliza. In November 1915 Albert sailed for France and this was almost certainly the last time that he saw his family and that they saw him because on the 25th September 1916, aged 32, he was killed on the Somme whilst serving with the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
Albert has no known grave.
In November 1916, Eliza Godsafe completed Army Form B.104-77 which was the “Declaration to be made by the Guardian of the Motherless child or children of a deceased soldier in support of a claim to Pension”. In it, Eliza – living at Shalesmere Cottage, Stapleford Tawney – acknowledged that she was the guardian of the six orphaned children, although it is not clear what the final award amounted to. In March 1917, Ethel died, aged 21 months,.
Eliza Godsafe received £5, 7 shillings and 10 pence as money owing to her son at the time of his death, and later a war gratuity of £7 and 10 shillings. She died in 1948 aged 96, having seen her surviving grandchildren make it to adulthood. Sadly her grandson Albert John10 like his father before him, was killed serving his country in 1941.
Albert Edward Godsafe’s name appears on the Thiepval Memorial and is also recorded on a memorial tablet at St Mary’s church Stapleford Tawney.