Anne Godfrey-Smith

Alma materFlinders UniversityNotable awardsACT Citizen of the Year, 1994Relatives

Anne Godfrey-Smith OAM BEM (30 November 1921 – 15 June 2011) was an Australian poet, theatre director and women's activist.

Early life and education

Godfrey-Smith was born on 30 November 1921 in Launceston, Tasmania. Her mother, Margaret Edgeworth McIntyre (née David), was the first woman to be elected to the Tasmanian parliament.^[1] Her father, William Keverall McIntyre, practised as an obstetrician.^[2]

Her education began in Launceston at Broadland House Church of England Girls Grammar School,^[3] but from 1935 to 1938 she was sent to board at Frensham School in Mittagong, New South Wales.^[1]

She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1941 with a BSc in biochemistry.^[1] She later took a BA at the Australian National University, followed by an MA at Flinders University for her thesis on Samuel Beckett.^[4]

Career

In the 1940s she worked as a pathologist at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. Following her marriage, she and her husband, Rowland Anthony (Tony) Godfrey-Smith, moved to Launceston^[1] where she continued her involvement in theatre as part-time actor, producer and director with the Launceston Players, the company her mother had founded in 1926.^[3] When her husband undertook postgraduate training in England in 1950 she was given the opportunity by Tyrone Guthrie to spend five months at the Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre where she developed her theatre production and management skills.^[1]

Returning to the Launceston Players, she also worked as producer/director for the local opera company. In 1953 she moved to Canberra as full-time producer and manager for the Canberra Repertory Society. The following year she was divorced by her husband on the grounds of desertion.^[5] In the late 1950s she married Robert Johnson^[6] and at the end of 1958 she resigned from Canberra Repertory Society.^[7]

In 1975 Godfrey-Smith was appointed by the National Youth and Children's Performing Arts Association to conduct an Australia-wide survey of young people and the performing arts,^[8] producing a detailed report on her findings in late 1977.^[9]

In the 1980s she served on the Theatre Board of the Australia Council and in 1986 was appointed to the ACT Arts Development Board.^[10]

Honours and recognition

Godfrey-Smith was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1980 New Year Honours "for service to theatre".^[11] She was ACT Citizen of the Year in 1994,^[1] while in the 2005 Australia Day Honours she was recognised with the Medal of the Order of Australia "for service to the arts, particularly through a range of theatre, literary and cultural organisations".^[12]

Death and legacy

Godfrey-Smith died in Narrabundah on 15 June 2011. She was survived by her two sons, Anthony ("Tony") Godfrey-Smith and William Grey.^[1]

Godfrey-Smith supported and encouraged writers in a variety of genres over many years. In 2013 her family established the Anne Edgeworth Trust, which provides a Fellowship in her memory to support emerging writers in the Canberra region.^[13][14] The Anne Edgeworth Fellowship has been administered by the ACT Writers Centre, which Godfrey-Smith was actively involved with when it was established in 1994.^[4] The ACT Writers Centre was renamed MARION in 2022,^[15] and continues to collaborate with the Anne Edgeworth Trust in supporting the Fellowship.^[16]

Works

Poetry

• Edgeworth, Anne; Burns, Paul (1982), A view from two cities : selected poems, Kardoorair Press, ISBN 978-0-908244-06-5
• ——; Brissenden collection (1996), The road to Leongatha : poems of Anne Edgeworth, Kardoorair Press, ISBN 978-0-908244-26-3
• —— (1997), Poems of Canberra, ArtSound Incorporated, ISBN 978-0-646-31294-1
• —— (1999), Turtles all the way down, Wood, Beverley (illustrator), Boris Books, ISBN 978-1-876668-01-3
• —— (2007), Poems for off-duty hours, Ginninderra Press, ISBN 978-1-74027-456-2
• —— (2007), Purdie's meditation and other poems, Picaro Press

Prose

• Edgeworth, Anne (1977), Youth performing arts in Australia 1975–1977, Australian Youth Performing Arts Association, ISBN 978-0-9597462-1-1
• —— (1991), The Australian reference dictionary, Oxford University Press Australia, ISBN 978-0-19-553296-8
• —— (1995), The cost of jazz garters : a history of Canberra Repertory Society, 1932 to 1982 (2nd ed.), Diplomat Agencies, ISBN 978-0-646-25915-4

National Library holdings

• Edgeworth, Anne. "Bibliography". National Library of Australia.

• Edgeworth, Anne. "Papers of Anne Edgeworth, 1927-1990". National Library of Australia, Bib ID: 566937 [Manuscript].

References

Sources

• O'Connor, Mark. "Anne Edgeworth Interview (1994)". National Library of Australia [sound recording, 15 sound tape reels; 7 in].
• Grey, William. "Memoir for Anne Edgeworth (1921–2011)". Academia. Retrieved 29 June 2024.