Robert Godfrey


	*Relaxing at home*

Robert John Godfrey was born in 1931. A talented journalist, he started his career at the age of 17 on the Molesey and Ditton News, which he later ran as chief sub-editor. He met his future wife, Barbara Frazer, when she joined the paper as a reporter in 1954.

Robert left for Fleet Street in the mid-Fifties, joining the Morning Advertiser as a sub-editor. He subsequently worked for the News Chronicle until it closed in 1960, when he moved to The Times. But he spent most of his career on the Daily Telegraph in the days of Peter Eastwood – first as splash sub, including handling the JFK assassination, then as foreign copytaster and on occasion chief sub.

During his spare time while living in Surrey, Robert launched a free newspaper, Local Life, which he sold to the Surrey Advertiser group on moving to the South Coast with his family in 1968. From there he continued to travel to London to the Telegraph, finally leaving Fleet Street four years later to start a free newspaper, the monthly Hayling Islander.


*On holiday in Rimini*

The Hayling Islander began life in June 1973 as an eight-page newspaper typeset on an old Varityper, printed by Robert on a small Multilith 1250 press in his mother’s garage and collated and delivered by the family – including sons Christopher, Peter and Stephen and their two grandmothers. Robert’s wife Barbara was the paper’s Editor.

Christopher, who later worked as a sub-editor on a national Sunday newspaper, did much of the typesetting for the Hayling Islander from the age of 12 and often took pictures for the paper. His younger brother Peter managed the invoices, a duty later taken over by the youngest in the family, Stephen. Stephen later became a studio engineer with the BBC and ran his own software company in London.

The Hayling Islander grew to a 32-page tabloid, printed in Bristol and later in Jersey and delivered to every home on Hayling Island by a band of volunteers. Robert and Christopher produced annual newsreels to show to local organisations – the first, for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year in 1977, is already of historical interest – and the paper won an award for editorial excellence in a national competition.


	*Semi-retirement on Alderney with Barbara*

Robert and Barbara continued to run the Hayling Islander after moving to Dartmoor in 1983, and then for a short time when they went to live on Alderney, third-biggest of the Channel Islands.

The newspaper was bought by the News Group, Portsmouth, in 1989 and was still popular and flourishing when the decision was made to close it down in the summer of 2019.

On Alderney, Robert founded the quarterly Alderney Magazine, the first issue commemorating a visit to the island by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Later Robert took over the Sherlock Holmes Gazette when it was threatened with closure.

The popular Alderney Magazine closed after Robert’s death in January 1994 following a short illness.

MORE PICTURES	– The early days
T M GODFREY	– Robert’s father


How it all started – Issue 1 of the Hayling Islander . . . and the other titles