Sub Lieutenant
Stephen Anthony Golder
GODDEN
,
DSC
Royal Navy
25
Stephen Godden (known as Anthony) was born in Horley in Surrey on 16 March 1916, the son of Gunner Stephen Thomas Godden, B Battery, 74 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery and Florence Gifford Godden (née Simpson). His father is understood to have died in action at the age of forty on 23 October 1918 and is buried in the Mont Huon Military Cemetery in Treport, Normandy. When the 1921 Census was taken Anthony Godden was at home with his widowed mother at 57, Montem Road, Lewisham. In October 1933 he was nominated as a ‘wireless watcher’ (Nomination No. 78087 in the Postal Services Appointments Book).
Anthony Godden joined the Merchant Service as an Apprentice Seaman and, in October 1938, he was noted to be serving as 4th Mate in the 20,800-ton P & O liner RMS MOOLTAN. His ‘Continuous Certificate of Discharge’ book noted him as being 6ft 1½ inches tall with blue eyes, light brown hair and a fresh complexion. He was appointed Probationary Sub Lieutenant, Royal Navy, on 1 March 1939 and, in the July 1939 Navy List, he was noted as appointed to the aircraft carrier HMS FURIOUS. In May 1940 he was serving in the destroyer HMS VIMY which was deployed to support the Dunkirk evacuation.
On 19 August 1940 he was appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course’ and, on 27 August 1940, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross ‘for good services in Operations off the Dutch, Belgian and French Coasts’. He was appointed to ‘HMS H33 as 3rd Hand’ on 9 January 1941.
Anthony Godden was next appointed to HMS UMPIRE ‘as Third Hand’ in March 1941 ’standing by whilst completing’ at HM Dockyard Chatham ‘and on Commissioning’. After commissioning on 10 July 1941, UMPIRE joined an East Coast Convoy for passage from Chatham to Dunoon in Argyll, Scotland. Whilst on surface passage on 19 July 1940 the submarine was in collision with an armed escort trawler and was sunk.
Although some of the crew survived, Anthony Godden died in the accident. His body was later recovered and he is buried in the graveyard of All Saints Parish Church, Mundesley, Norfolk in Grave No 87.
