Godley was born in Chester Street in Belgravia, and educated at Arnold House School in St John's Wood in London, followed by Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, developing an interest in horse racing and betting at both latter places, and rowing in the first VIII at Eton and the University second boat, Isis, at Oxford. After serving in the Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War, he returned to his studies, and graduated with an MA in 1948. He married twice. He married Penelope Anne Reyne in 1943. They had two children, Christopher and another son, who died aged three days. He and Penelope divorced in 1949. In April 1951, he moved permanently to the family's estate, Killegar House, in Carrigallen, County Leitrim. His father's fortunes had not flourished and he had been forced by circumstances to put Killegar on the market. The house was dilapidated, and had not been occupied for several years but he was determined to live there. He farmed the estate organically from the 1950s. His second marriage was to an Australian ex-spy and writer, Susan Lee Heazlewood, who was thirty-six years his junior, in 1981. They had one son, the Irish poetSean Godley, before divorcing in 1989. He also had a daughter, Lisa. He died in Cavan in August 2006.
After finishing his studies, he considered joining the Foreign Service, but decided to become a journalist instead, working for the Daily Mirror from 1947 to 1949, the Daily Express from 1949 to 1951, and then freelance. He was originally as a racing correspondent and later mainly as a foreign correspondent in places including Aden, Angola, China, Cuba and Yemen. He wrote for many journals, including The New Yorker, Punch, Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping. He also wrote several books under the name "John Godley", including Tell Me the Next One, The Master Forger, Living Like a Lord, A Peer Behind the Curtain and Shamrocks and Unicorns, a biography of the VermeerforgerHan van Meegeren, a war autobiography entitled Bring Back My Stringbag, and The Easy Way to Bird Recognition, which won an award and was followed up by The Easy Way to Tree Recognition and The Easy Way to Wild Flower Recognition.
Peerage
He succeeded his father as Baron Kilbracken in 1950, while visiting New Zealand to celebrate the centenary of the foundation of Christchurch and the province of Canterbury by his great-great-grandfather, John Robert Godley. He took his seat in the House of Lords, but rarely attended until he made his maiden speech in 1961. He became an active member in later years. Originally a Liberal, he moved to Labour in 1966. As a resident in the Republic of Ireland, he returned his six military medals in 1972 as a result of British behaviour in Northern Ireland. He also renounced his British nationality, taking up an Irish passport, but retaining his right to sit in the House of Lords until the reforms in 1999. He also campaigned on behalf of the Kurds, comparing the situation in Iraq with that in Northern Ireland.
