The Geelong war hero set to be remembered in Canberra

Brigadier Arthur Godfrey was one of Australia’s most experienced commanders when he was killed by artillery during the decisive Battle of El Alamein in 1942.

The battle turned the tide of the war in North Africa, but Brig. Godfrey wouldn’t live to see it.

He was the highest ranking Australian to be killed in North Africa.

Eight decades later, Brigadier Godfrey’s descendants will be out in force to commemorate him.

Each night, the Australian War Memorial tells the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour.

Now, it’s Brigadier Godfrey’s turn as the Australian War Memorial marks the 80th Anniversary of the End of the North Africa Campaign during World War II.

More than 50 family members are set to arrive in the capital for the occasion, but that wouldn’t have been the case generations before.

Cousins Helen Handbury and Gae Gray never met their grandfather, and didn’t hear much about him growing up.

“(My father’s generation) didn’t talk about the war,” Ms Handbury said.

“My father (Brigadier Godfrey’s eldest son, John) was a prisoner of war, he never spoke of it (but) he did say how much he loved his father.”

It wasn’t until one of Ms Handbury’s older brothers, Arthur, named for his grandfather, began to do research that the information tumbled out.

“We didn’t even know him,” Ms Grey said.

Born in Melbourne, Brigadier Godfrey was educated at Central College, Geelong and “spent whatever time in his life he wasn’t at war in Geelong” Ms Grey said.

As a young man, Brigadier Godfrey served on the Western Front during World War I, where in 1916, he led a raiding party and was awarded the Military Cross for carrying a wounded Sergeant to safety.

Between the wars Brigadier Godfrey lived in Newtown, working as an auctioneer for Strachan & Co., and was a popular figure in the community.

He was a career soldier and joined the war effort immediately, becoming one of the famous Rats of Tobruk.

Ms Handbury has letters the Brigadier wrote from North Africa to his first fiancee, whom he remained close with.

She said the letters were a poignant reminder that helped her gain a sense of the man her grandfather was, and of the enormous strain all soldiers were under.

“He wrote 15 letters to her; he was so appreciative because she sent food parcels to my father, when he was a prisoner of war,” Ms Handbury said.

“I read these letters… and at the end of it, I just burst, I was so emotional.”

In the letters, Brigadier Godfrey wrote of how war had changed him.

“You will see a big change in me – wonder if you’ll recognise me – a bit ‘battle scared’ or should it be ‘bottle scared’ or ‘battle scared’,” he wrote.

Ms Handbury said the letters were powerful in detailing the fear her grandfather felt, knowing fighting could kick off “at a tick of the clock”.

“It’s typical of every soldier, even today… it’s the same awful fear – ‘will I get out of this alive?’,” she said.

Even still, Brigadier Godfrey managed to keep abreast of his son’s health in captivity.

“Tell him all is well, and I look forward more than anything to having him back with us again,” he wrote.

It was not to be, and the reality on the frontline was far more arduous.

“I’d like a walk in your garden to see something green, as a change from the sand,” he wrote.

“Out here, we live in holes in the sand – it seems amazing that some 100km away is one of Egypt’s big cities – where life goes on as usual.”

When he was killed, the Geelong Advertiser declared he had died “for his country, and humanity”.

Ms Grey said all her family wanted was for their grandfather to be remembered, at least within the family.

Now, with a new generation of children and grandchildren learning the story of Brig. Arthur Godfrey, that’s no doubt his story will live on.