Cross-border Celebration

He was a mentor to many, a father figure to some and to all an inspiration. Architect John Godwin passed away early this year at the age of 94. His long and productive life was celebrated on Saturday June 17 in a service held simultaneously in London and Lagos, with speakers on both sides, connected via internet.

William John Gilbert Godwin spent 60 years of his life in Lagos and left indelible marks in many people and organisations. He came to Nigeria with his wife Gillian. She opened the cross-border commemoration for her husband with a touching personal account of their life together. ‘O, what an adventure we had’, she sighed in the prerecorded message. The crowd in St James Church in Clerkenwell, London and in The Wheatbaker in Lagos saw her speak  from the big screens that also showcased pictures and footage of their travels and life through the years.

John Godwin was a co-founder and driving force behind Legacy, and both in London and in Lagos our organisation was represented. Kofo Adeleke, another co-founder, attended in London. She described John Godwin, a two term President of Legacy, in her tribute as ‘a convivial extrovert and first class raconteur’, whose legacy to Nigeria is enormous. His becoming a Nigerian citizen in 2011, she said, showed his deep love for the country. In Lagos, Legacy executives Lateefah Teniola and Femke van Zeijl recounted how it was John’s enthusiasm for Nigeria’s built heritage that made them join Legacy.

Also present were lecturers and students from the University of Lagos, where Professor Godwin taught for several years, members from the Yacht Club, the Nigerian Institute of Architects and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The day’s chairman Olasupo Shashore called the wide attendance ‘a testament to what John Godwin has done to the landscape of Lagos’.

The memorial service was filled with fond memories, funny anecdotes and records of the lives he touched, in an afternoon where the media smoothly switched from London to Lagos and back. In the perfectionist way John Godwin would have done it himself, as one of the attendees in Lagos remarked.

His colleague Abiola Fayemi who joined his architectural firm and eventually took over GHK architects in Lagos described the way in which John Godwin used to spur others into action, by bellowing ‘Kilode, maza maza, ọlẹ?’ Who will do this now, she wondered. William John Gilbert Godwin will be missed by many in many ways.