Thomas Godfrey Mason, 1890-1959

Thomas Godfrey Mason was something of a recluse who talked little of his private affairs and of his childhood and education. These circumstances make it difficult to present as full an account of his life as one would wish. Thomas Godfrey Mason was born at Greystones, Co. Dublin on 24 July 1890 ; his father, C. W. Townshend, married Miss A. R. Mason a member of a Dublin medical family. Three of his wife’s brothers were medical men in Dublin. Thomas Godfrey and his brother and two sisters were largely brought up in Dublin by their mother and by her father. Ultimately they took the latter’s name, Mason. Thomas attended a preparatory school, Temple Grove at Richmond, Surrey, and later went to Cheltenham College. Few records can be obtained of his early interests and activities, apart from a known prowess as a long distance runner and an enthusiasm for motor bicycling during the infancy of that form of transport.