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Assistant Commissioner Charles Nevill GODWIN
Malayan Police Force Date of birth: 16th August 1909 Date of death: 28th May 1954 Killed on active service aged 44 Unknown
Charles Nevill Godwin was born at Winchester on the 16th of August 1909 the second son of Charles Edward Godwin, a solicitor, and Adela Theodora (nee Clark De Berger) Godwin of Barnes Close, Westbourne, St Cross, Winchester. He was educated at Lancing College from May 1923 to December 1927 where he was in Olds House. He was Captain of Boxing in 1927. He went on to Jesus College Cambridge in 1928 where he won a Blue with the Boxing Team in 1931 and achieved a BA in the same year. Later in 1931 he went to Malaya as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Malay Police and by 1940 had become Assistant Commissioner of Police. He was married to Olive Nancy (nee Harrison). In February 1942, he escaped from Singapore when the island fell to the Japanese; his wife escaped to Adelaide. He escaped to Mauritius where he was seconded as a Superintendant of Police while he was there. He was later embodied into the army as a Captain and was drafted to India in connection with the retaking of Malaya in 1944. He was Deputy Commissioner of Police, British Military Administration Singapore Police and was a Lieutenant Colonel by 1945. He had a son, Mark Nevill, born in 1945. After the war he returned to Singapore with his family on board the SS Andes, embarking at Southampton on the 19th of January 1947. He was promoted to Superintendant of Police in 1949. He later became Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police during the communist insurgency and Chief Police Officer of Kedah and Perlis States, Federation of Malaya. He was awarded the King’s Police and Fire Service Medal in the King’s New Year’s Honours List of the 1st of January 1952. On the 28th of May 1954 he had been visiting the head of Kedah Special branch, Mr G. Dack at his bungalow on Kedah Peak, and left afterwards by car to travel to Penang to attend a wedding at which he was to be best man. About five miles down the road the car was brought to a halt by a tree which had been felled across the road. Godwin got out of the car to assist his driver in removing the tree and it is thought he left his revolver in the car. An estimated thirty communist rebels opened fire on the car killing Charles Godwin. A little later, about a mile away, another police vehicle was ambushed with the only survivor being the 12 year old son of a Special Police Constable who ran the five miles back to the bungalow to raise the alarm. In retaliation the authorities ordered the shelling of suspected rebel positions at Kedah Peak (Gunung Jerai). This was carried out by the cruiser HMS Newfoundland which fired 267 rounds with her 6 inch guns at a range of about eight miles over a two day period.

Olds House