Anne Godfrey-Smith | |
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Born | Anne McIntyre 30 November 1921 Launceston, Tasmania, Australia |
Died | 15 June 2011 Narrabundah, Australian Capital Territory | (aged 89)
Pen name | Anne Edgeworth |
Occupation |
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Education | |
Alma mater | Flinders University |
Notable awards | ACT Citizen of the Year, 1994 |
Relatives |
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Anne Godfrey-Smith OAM BEM (30 November 1921 – 15 June 2011) was an Australian poet, theatre director and women's activist.
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]
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.[5] 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.[6] In the late 1950s she married Robert Johnson[7] and at the end of 1958 she resigned from Canberra Repertory Society.[8]
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,[9] producing a detailed report on her findings in late 1977.[10]
In the 1980s she served on the Theatre Board of the Australia Council and in 1986 was appointed to the ACT Arts Development Board.[11]
Godfrey-Smith was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1980 New Year Honours "for service to theatre".[12] 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".[13]
Godfrey-Smith died in Narrabundah on 15 June 2011. She was survived by her two sons.[1]
In recognition of her contribution to the formation and operation of the ACT Writers Centre,[4] the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship for emerging young writers was inaugurated.[14][15] Her papers are held in the National Library of Australia.[16]