Born at Cheadle, Cheshire on 18 January 1867 the second child and eldest son of Alfred Godson, MB, CM, and Laura Frances Mary Radcliffe, his wife. His father, Alfred Godson, who graduated at Cambridge as a senior optime, became demonstrator of anatomy at the Manchester Royal School of Medicine. Alfred Henry, the son, was educated at Aldenham School and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating with a second class in the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part 1. He received his medical education at Owen's College, Manchester, and at Guy's Hospital where he was house surgeon and resident obstetric officer. He practised at 88 Union Street West, Oldham, in partnership with Frederick Charles Sedgwick Broome, MB London, and was surgeon to the Oldham Royal Infirmary. He married Mary Elizabeth Mayall on 12 September 1900; she survived him with two daughters. He died on 3 October 1938 at Sherrington Grove Road, Beaconsfield, Bucks, where he had lived after his retirement from Oak Bank, Windsor Road, Oldham.