Mr Frederick Walter Godwin1 was born at the New Forest Union Workhouse in Eling, Hampshire, England, on 16 June 1878.
His mother was Mary Ann Godwin (b. 1848), a married woman estranged from her husband; the name of his father was left blank in his birth certificate and the matter of his paternity later became a dispute that reached the petty courts.
Mary Ann Godwin, née Knowlton (aka Stormes), was a domestic servant originally from Minstead, Hampshire (baptised 6 August 1848). She herself was the illegitimate daughter of Mary Ann Knowlton, later Mrs George Stormes. In 1868 she married fellow Minstead resident Thomas Godwin (b. 1844), an agricultural labourer, and with whom she had at least one child. The marriage was troubled from the offset, and Mary Ann had a string of extramarital affairs, prompting Thomas Godwin to leave the relationship sometime between 1869 and 1873, disappearing not only from her life but also the life of his own parents. By 1871 she was cohabiting with a man named Tom Taylor, an alcoholic who brutalised her.
Mary Ann would have eight children, although it would appear that few shared a common father: William George (b. 1866), Charles Henry (b. 1871), Robert (b. 1872), Samuel (b. 1874), Keturah Charlotte (b. 1875), Frederick (b. 1878), Alice Maud Mary (b. 1881) and John (b. circa 1885).
Although Mary Ann was legally married to Thomas Godwin, the couple had been estranged for up to nine years by the time of Frederick’s birth in 1878. It was later alleged that his father was one Charles Keeping (b. circa 1831), a married man from Emery Down, Hampshire.
With Mary Ann in dire circumstances, her children were taken into care, and she entered the New Forest Union Workhouse, where she gave birth to Frederick in 1878. In January 1879, according to the Hampshire Advertiser, Mary Ann-still an inmate of the workhouse-brought Charles Keeping of Emery Down before the court, charging him with being the father of young Frederick. It was later judged that Keeping was indeed the baby’s father, and he was ordered to pay weekly maintenance for his upkeep.
By 1881 Frederick and his mother were still inmates of the workhouse; during this time Mary Ann had another child, Alice (b. 1881). The family eventually freed themselves of the poorhouse, and by 1891 Mary Ann was styling herself as Mrs John Kitcher, the wife of farm labourer John Kitcher who was twenty years her senior, although they were never officially married. The 1891 census shows Frederick, his mother, his sister Alice and yet another brother, John (b. 1885), as residents of Sway, Hampshire.
Raised most of his life in rural Hampshire, Godwin initially pursued a career as a groom. Whilst still with that profession, he was married in Lymington Registry Office on 8 July 1897 to Emily Elizabeth Hine (b. 1874 in Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire), a domestic servant.
Frederick and Emily would have three children: Phyllis Flintham (b. 14 July 1898), Geoffrey Reginald (b. 1 June 1899) and Frank George (b. 25 July 1902).
On the 1901 census, Frederick, his wife and his first two children were listed as living at Lopperwood Road, Netley Marsh, Hampshire, and he was described as a groom. On the 1911 census, the family were then living at Ringwood Road, Totton, Hampshire, and Frederick was then described as a steamship fireman. Exactly when he first went to sea is not certain.
When Gowdin signed on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912, he gave his address simply as Totton and his age as 33. His previous ship had been the Oceanic, and as a greaser, he could expect monthly wages of £6 10s.
Also serving on the Titanic was the younger brother of his wife, Emily, William Edward Hine, who worked as a baker. Hine often lived with the Godwins when the men were ashore.
Frederick Godwin was lost in the Titanic disaster, and his body, if recovered, was never identified. He is remembered on a plaque at St Mary's Church, Eling, Totton. William Hine was also among the lost.
Emily, his widow, remarried in 1918 to an Alfred Knight before her death in Totton on 2 May 1929.
His daughter Phyllis was later married to shipyard welder Edward Henry Peckham (b. 1893), and they had a daughter; she died in Balcombe, West Sussex, on 5 May 1989. His son Geoffrey also went to sea as a stoker and trimmer, both in the Royal Navy and merchant service; he never married and later died in Southampton in 1957. Son Frank, later a wood machinist, was married in 1935 to Dorcas Elizabeth Taplin (b. 1911), and he had a son; he died in Totton on 24 February 1979.
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