1900s-1945
Godfrey Valentine Brooke Hine came from a family steeped in art. His grandfather, Henry George Hine, was a landscape artist, and both his parents followed the same calling: his father, William Egerton Hine, and his mother, Edith Louise M Hine, were each artists in their own right. Edith was one of the daughters of Agnes Heath, whose other daughters were Florence and Maud. The Heath family lived at The Woods, giving the household a firm connection to the village.
Godfrey himself was born at Reigate and was baptised on 6 July 1890. When the 1911 census was taken, he was recorded as an art student, so it seems he was expected to carry on the family tradition. That artistic legacy is still visible in the village today: a pastel picture by Edith Hine, dating from around 1887/88, shows Leigh Church and its neighbouring cottages, and the work is catalogued under the Row/Great Boydens.
The First World War cut short whatever path Godfrey might have taken. He was killed on 6 October 1915. Perhaps because of his family's ties to The Woods rather than to the village itself, his name does not appear on the Leigh War Memorial. He is not forgotten here, however, for he is commemorated on a window in Leigh Church.
The window has been the subject of some confusion over the years. It has sometimes been said that it was made by William Nicholson, and that Godfrey had been that artist's student, but both of these claims are incorrect. The stained glass was in fact made by Archibald K Nicholson, who signed the work in the bottom right hand corner. It stands today as a lasting memorial to a young artist's son whose life, like so many of his generation, was lost to the war.