Anne Godfrey-Smith

Anne Godfrey-Smith

OAM BEM
BornAnne McIntyre
(1921-11-30)30 November 1921
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Died15 June 2011(2011-06-15) (aged 89)
Narrabundah, Australian Capital Territory
Pen nameAnne Edgeworth
Occupation
  • Poet
  • theatre producer
  • women's activist
Education
Alma materFlinders University
Notable awardsACT Citizen of the Year, 1994
Relatives

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

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Godfrey-Smith, Anne". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  2. ^ Ferrall, R. A. McIntyre, Margaret Edgeworth (1886–1948) In: Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Anne Edgeworth". Libraries ACT. 10 January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b Leask, Margaret (2011). "Obituary – Anne Godfrey-Smith". Obituaries Australia. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Decrees nisi granted". The Examiner (Tasmania). Vol. CXIII, no. 106. Tasmania, Australia. 14 July 1954. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "What People Are Doing". The Canberra Times. Vol. 34, no. 9, 467. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 8 December 1959. p. 5. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "New Producer Manager For Repertory". The Canberra Times. Vol. 33, no. 9, 685. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 10 January 1959. p. 11. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Full program to involve youth". The Canberra Times. Vol. 49, no. 14, 004. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 4 March 1975. p. 17. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "THE WORLD OF THEATRE Hard-headed reporting". The Canberra Times. Vol. 52, no. 14, 923. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 4 November 1977. p. 21. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ Scholes, Gordon (8 August 1986). "Appointment of Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith and Mr Joe Woodward to the ACT Arts Development Board". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  11. ^ "Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith". It's an Honour. 31 December 1979. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  12. ^ "Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith". It's an Honour. 26 January 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  13. ^ "Shortlists for 2014 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards announced". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  14. ^ "ACTW Annual Awards". ACT Writers. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  15. ^ "About MARION". MARION. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  16. ^ "Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer's Fellowship". MARION. Retrieved 3 July 2024.

Sources