8/52 Courting: Norah Godlee

 8/52 Courting: Norah Godlee

 

This week I am writing about an event in the life of Norah, the younger sister of Hazel Mary Godlee who appeared in this blog in week 3.  Norah Lucy Godlee was in born in Adelaide in 1900, three years after Mary. The prompt ‘Courting’ brings this story to mind, a small, probably unimportant tale in her bigger life story. Norkie didn’t marry but that’s not to say she wasn’t courted.  

Known as Norkie or Norks, she was the fifth child of Charlotte and Theodore Godlee. Her childhood was marred by the death of her father a month before her 8th birthday. Besides that, her childhood was passed swinging in the hammock, playing in the garden, reading, attending East Adelaide Primary School, Methodist Ladies College and  Kent Town Methodist Sunday School. As teenagers she and her sisters also taught at the Sunday School and were active in the YWCA. At sixteen they were thrown into tragedy again when their older brother, John, was killed in France in 1916. He had been proud of Norkie and wrote to her to thank her for ‘that jolly little painting. I’ve shown it to lots of them and they all like it tremendously.'

Norkie was always interested in drawing and painting. She won a prize for for it in high school and embarked on a career as an artist. She studied, and later taught, China painting, this becoming a staple money earner. Her first exhibition was in 1920 as part of the Arts and Crafts Association.

In 1924 and again in 1925 she had her own exhibitions of her china painting and watercolours at her studio in North Terrace. In 1925 the exhibition was opened by a prominent Adelaide architect, Charles Rutt, a family friend. He said he ‘had watched Miss Godlee’s career with great interest, for she had shown unmistakable signs of talent from childhood. He considered her an artist to her fingertips’. Charles Rutt told the assembled guests that Miss Godlee was contemplating a ‘trip overseas in order to continue her studies with some of the famous teachers’. Norah’s mother thought it was a good idea:  ‘It will be a great help if she really goes to England. I hope she will. The only thing I don’t like about her going with Dora is that she is so silly about men. I am sure Norah can be trusted to look after herself in every way.’ 

China painting from 1925 by Norah Godlee

At the start of 1926 they set off on the SS Baradine for London: Norah, Miss Hamilton, (another artist and art teacher at Methodist Ladies' College, older than the others and perhaps playing the role of chaperone, referred to as ‘Miss Hamilton’) and  school friends or YWCA friends, Marge Meade, Ray Maxwell and Owie Hunter. Apparently Dora didn’t go with them. 

There had been a lot of preparations: That summer Norkie got all the expensive Xmas presents, and they had to economise on everyone else: a trunk and suitcase from her mother, a ‘beautiful handbag, perfectly plain dark brown, gold clasps with rather large purse inside and large mirror fixed to flap, lined with moire silk, short handle,’ from  Margery, a writing case from Jay and Tim, a rug from Uncle Harris which she had had her name worked on; a deck chair. Her mother remarked that ‘Norah is not thinking of buying many clothes to take with her, but of course she must have a good supply of underclothes. She will not want to be spending much when she arrives there’.

Oldest sister, Dots, said  ‘Norkie is looking tired. It will be a good thing when she has safely started though we shall not like saying farewell to the dear kid.’

They sailed away. Now the courting story began. 

In her first letter of Jan 30th, she lamented to her younger sister: ‘ Jay, I am sorry to say my prospects are rather flat! (up till now, perhaps after the Cape things will look up.) Ship board romances had probably been joked about! 

On February 6th, Saturday night, there was a fancy dress ball. Norkie was planning to dress as ‘autumn’ but she and Ray were persuaded to dress as officers: ‘Ray looks ripping in navy & I had a white mess suit, gold buttons & all!! We had great fun getting dressed & Mr Phillips came along to put the finishing touches. He sent along every thing even to studs, a stick for me. Later they changed into evening frocks ‘as we got rather heated!’.

A week later this happened : ’I was playing bridge & Marge came up bringing a form & said it was to be sent at once & would just catch a chain of boats, the last touch with Australia in that way. Of course the ordinary wireless are so expensive. I filled it in & thought they were all sending them. After it had gone I discovered that the 4th Officer had sent it to me. It was his due but as he did not want to use it had passed it on to me. So you see, it was only for Officers. and I got my 25 words for naught. Wasn’t it jolly of him? He is a nice boy, awfully young & talks away like Tim.’ In the same letter Norkie reassures her family : ‘But you need not be worried as I am most proper and dignified & as yet, hope have not changed for the worse! Though I am sure you would enjoy it all, especially if you saw the way Mr Phillips, (the 4th Officer) has patched my deck chair! Some wretched creature threw a cigarette end into it & burnt a hole the size of 2/- in the seat. It is absolutely a masterpiece, the green stripe matching perfectly. I suppose he did it himself. He sent a cadet to get it this morning. Isn’t it killing? I am afraid Lady Holder would not approve! But it seems to me that if one is absolutely natural no one need worry much.’

They arrived in London in the middle of March. Miss Hamilton, Ray and Norkie initially lodged in a hotel, Ray and Norkie sharing a room, and ‘quite lost after our tiny cabins’. They picked up their letters from the Bank, drove down Oxford Street, Bond Street and Fleet Street; ‘Then we went to Selfridges & bought some silk and wool stockings for 2/6, just like ones we pay 7/11 for. My dears, I got the dearest little jumper suit of silk & wool for 33/6. Frocks & coats are really tons cheaper here.’

Money occupied a lot of Norkie’s thoughts. They economised on food where they could : ‘We only pay for bed and breakfast here which is 8/6. Dinner costs us an extra 3/6 & lunch 2/6 so we either have those meals out, which is much cheaper, or have tea at night, (earlier,) for 1/6.

In contrast to this, in the next sentence, Norkie writes: Tuesday night I was very gay. I was taken out to dinner and the theatre. ‘Norkie sees the gay side of London.’ I went with Mr Phillips and we had great fun. We went to the swankiest place. I do wish you could have seen me. I felt such a lady. I wore my apricot frock & shawl. It was quite a thrill being wisked (sic) round in taxis from one place to another. (Here let me assure you, dears, that I am not the slightest bit keen on Neville Phillips. We are just good friends & I’m sure you would all approve. We all like him very much. I added this as letters often are not very definite & such lots of things can be imagined.)'

Perhaps Neville Phillip did imagine something else. 

By the 25th of March they had found a flat in Hamstead Heath and moved in, were learning about shopping for groceries, cooking and housekeeping and investigating art schools. 

At that time Norkie was again taken out by Neville Phillips, this time to dinner at the Strand Palace Hotel and the theatre, The Gaiety, where they saw The Blue Kitten, a musical play which Norkie damned with faint praise when she wrote, ‘Quite a bright affair & very pretty in parts’. She was more enamoured of her new black coat: ‘rather swish material, lined too, the hem with  gold crepe de chine. Brown soft coloured fur, collar and cuffs also on the side flaired pieces.’ and ‘I look quite slim in it!! I wore it that night I went out to dinner and the theatre with my little friend, Neville again. My coat looks so nice over my evening frock. I was quite thrilled & wished you could have seen me.!!’  And ‘I felt quite spoiled with delicious chocs (much appreciated by Ray afterwards!!) and it is such a scream. You can have a little tray with coffee pot etc in the interval. Not anything to eat but a ducky little cup & saucer, sugar& cream. The Baradine left for Hull next morning so I won’t be seeing any more ‘high life’ for a while !!!’ She seems more thrilled by the new coat and the ducky little cups than with Neville, her ‘little friend’. 

Neville did not give up and continued to write to Norkie from the ship. The last reference to Neville Phillips in Norkie’s letters, in April, is to say she is disappointed not to be going out to dinner and the theatre with ‘my little friend’ because the Baradine is delayed. She guesses they realise that the ‘4th officer is rather keen on Norkie.’ She goes on at some length about the state of affairs: ‘Oh dear, these things are rather trying. I can’t understand why he should like me when he has such ‘ideas’ on most things which I never could live up to !! He is absolutely screaming. I can’t help laughing at him & he gets very upset that I don’t take him seriously. The letters I have had since he has been up the coast!! We collapse when a fresh one turns up. They are really quite nice & always some ‘good’ reason for writing such as Easter wishes etc. He got his sister to send over a ‘Paris doll’ which he sent me as an Easter present. Wasn’t it killing? Ray & Ida are very tickled over the affair. Really though, joking apart, I am awfully sorry about it as Neville is just an awfully nice boy, but I could not dream of marrying him. In lots of ways I would do him good but he is far too young & I know exactly how I feel about the matter. I think I must be a heartless creature. I never seem to like the people who like me! Oh well I suppose I can’t help it & I really am glad I am sure of myself as I don’t want to go falling in love with an English man, do I, Jay? I honestly don’t feel I have encouraged the child & he knows pretty well my feelings but it doesn’t seem to have made much difference!! Also I have declined invitations and all that kind of thing. So what else can one do, especially as we are friends. Ray & Ida give me motherly advice which I try to take!!  Of course all would be well if he was going to Aus with the Baradine next week but he isn’t. He is leaving the Sea & living in London. He is trading with the East in silks etc, has about 30 agents all over the place & is very keen on it all and it sound most promising. In June he leaves for Japan and China for a month out there on business, so I expect he will have recovered from this little affair by then.  I have written all this little yarn to you Jay, as I promised to own up to all my sins.  and I know if I wrote this or even suggested it in the family letter it would go round the country, so I had to tell you & mum. I know you want to know everything.'

But it is not the end of the story. I was interested to know what became of him, his trade in silk and his future prospects, so I searched for him in the English Newspapers. 

To my great surprise, on page 12 of the Liverpool Echo I found  a reference to him, so I’ll let him have the last word! The headline reads:‘Officer who launched out on a career of crime’ :

'When Neville Phillips, fourth officer on a P&O boat, was sentenced at Weymouth today to two months imprisonment for breaking into a refreshment kiosk and stealing cigarettes and cash and also breaking open a church offertory box it was stated that when he returned from Australia in April, he suddenly launched out on a career of crime. In a letter to his parents Phillips wrote “I hope to make a fresh start in Australia. To lose money is to lose little, to lose honour is to lose much but to lose courage is to lose everything. I have lost much of the first and second but I still retain the third intact. - your remorseful son.’ 

References

Godlee Charlotte Louisa, 2020, The Dear Old Letters. 1897 -1928, transcribed, edited and published by Sally O’Wheel,

Godlee, John, The Letters of John Godlee, the Boy and the Man, letters from 1902 -1916. transcribed, Edited and published by Sally O’Wheel, 2021.

Godlee Norah, letters. in the possession of Sally O’Wheel

“A Gifted Artist’ The Register, (Adelaide, SA)  November ,1925 p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60633535

“Officer who launched a career of crime” The Liverpool Echo, August 12th, p12