A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Godfrey
GODFREY. A family of English military band-masters. Charles Godfrey, the founder, was born in 1790 at Kingston, Surrey; in 1813 joined the Coldstreams as a bassoon-player, and soon became band-master, a post which he filled with honour till his death, Dec. 12, 1863, at his house in Vincent Square, Westminster, after 50 years' service. He was appointed Musician in Ordinary to the King in 1831, and was one of the Court of Assistants of the Royal Society of Musicians. The first journal of military music published in this country, under the name of 'Jullien's Journal,' was arranged by Mr. Godfrey. His three sons were educated at the Royal Academy of Music. Daniel, the eldest, was born in 1831, and has been band-master of the Grenadier Guards since 1856. In 1872 he took his band to the United States—the first visit of an English military band since the Independence. He is well known here and abroad by his waltzes for military band—'Guards,' 'Mabel,' 'Hilda,' etc.
The second, Adolphus Frederick, born in 1837, succeeded his father in the Coldstreams, and is still band-master of that regiment [App. p.650 "date of death, Aug. 28, 1882"]. Charles, the third, born in 1839, joined the Scots Fusiliers as band-master in 1859 and left that regiment in 1868 for a similar position in the Royal Horse Guards, which he now fills (1878).