John Henry Godfrey

Admiral John Henry Godfrey CB (10 July 1888 – 29 August 1970) was an officer of the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy, specialising in navigation. Ian Fleming is said to have based James Bond's boss, "M", on Godfrey.

Life and career Godfrey was born in Handsworth, Staffordshire, in 1888. The son of Godfrey Henry Godfrey, he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, at Bradfield College and HMS Britannia. In 1921 he married (Bertha) Margaret Hope, (1901–1995), who had studied at Girton College, Cambridge, and was the daughter of Donald Hope, managing director of Henry Hope & Sons Ltd, window-frame manufacturers, of Birmingham. The couple had three daughters, the eldest, Kathleen Margaret Godfrey (1922–2015) (married names Kinmonth, then Warren), became a Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer and a Bletchley Park code breaker; another daughter, Christina Gibb was a peace activist in New Zealand. Margaret Godfrey was very active and supportive of her husband's career, assisting the establishment of the Bletchley Park at the end of 1939, compiling maps and data for the Admiralty from 1940, and was head of the Indian Women's Voluntary Service during the time they were stationed there.

In 1966 and 1967 Godfrey gave his memoirs to Churchill College, Cambridge. These contain many unpublished sources and are based in part on an official history of the Naval Intelligence Division which he had written at the end of the war. Godfrey died in Eastbourne in 1970.