Sir Godfrey Tillinghast

* by law, but not biologically

**Sir Godfrey Tillinghast** (1937 - 2019) was a British civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service from 2008 to 2016. He was a member of the influential Tillinghast family and was a follower of the cult of Ipqu-Aya.

## Early Life

Godfrey was born in 1937 to Lord Ambrose and Lady Beatrice Tillinghast. It’s likely that the Tillinghast who was involved in the failed summoning ritual at Melusine with Obed Marsh and Edward Landsdale was Godfrey’s grandfather. Thus, the family’s generations-long involvement in the cult of Ipqu-Aya and the Esoteric Order of Dagon means that Godfrey was almost certainly, from an early age, indoctrinated into their beliefs and rituals.

He attended Winchester College and went on to study at Oxford University. He was introduced to his future wife, Caroline Hughes, by his sister Eliza Tillinghast after the two women had met at finishing school in Switzerland. After graduating, he took a job in the civil service and quickly ascended the ranks to the point where, even before his marriage to Caroline, he was in some position of power.

## New Forest Coven

In 1962, Godfrey, Caroline and Eliza all joined Joseph Curwen’s New Forest Coven. Many in the coven, like Amelia Fenner, felt these members of the establishment were merely ‘slumming it’ to enjoy the nudity and sex magic rituals; Curwen had frequent sexual relations with Caroline, Eliza and Godfrey. However, Caroline and Eliza were there for a very specific reason - to be impregnated by Curwen and thus allow the Tillinghast family to take back control of the Ipqu-Aya bloodline.

This tactic worked and both women were soon pregnant. However, soon afterwards, a disagreement led to Curwen physically beating one of the women and all three of them quickly departed the coven. The nature of the disagreement is unclear but it might be assumed that Curwen was displeased after having uncovered the Tillinghast plan to reacquire the bloodline. In retaliation, Godfrey used his resources at Whitehall to have the police raid the New Forest, break the coven and drive Curwen out.

## Later Life

When Caroline gave birth to Emma Tillinghast in 1963, she was raised as Godfrey’s daughter and, unlike her cousin, Sarah, no official record pointed to her actual parentage. Godfrey’s sister, Eliza, moved to America at the same time perhaps to save the family embarrassment of an illegitimate child, but also perhaps to make the Ipqu-Aya bloodline safer by keeping them geographically separate.

How much of all of these events were guided by Godfrey and how much they were guided by his parents, Lord Ambrose and Lady Beatrice, is unclear. However, Godfrey continued to amass more power and influence in his own right and climb the ranks of the Civil Service. In 2008, he was appointed to the top position of Cabinet Secretary. By tradition, this position leads to a knighthood and Tillinghast was no exception so when he stepped down from the role in 2016, he had become Sir Godfrey Tillinghast.

It was soon after this that Tillinghast’s long-term plans were thrown into disarray when both his grandnephew, Charles Dexter Ward, and his own granddaughter, Lucy Hawthorne, were murdered by psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Willett.

## The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

While presenting a façade of disinterest and ignorance regarding his sister’s line of the family, it’s unclear how true this was for Sir Godfrey. There is still considerable speculation about how much Tillinghast and the wider family were involved in the lives of Eliza’s daughter, Sarah, and grandson, Charles Dexter Ward. However, Tillinghast’s connections to Ward and the Ipqu-Aya cult were dragged into the open by Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher when they were investigating the disappearance of Sir Godfrey’s grandnephew. Their investigations made public Sir Godfrey’s connection with the New Forest Coven and Joseph Curwen personally, as well as proving a family tie between Charles Ward and Lucy Hawthorne.

Sir Godfrey tried to shut down the Mystery Machine investigation by having Matthew Heawood beaten up just after having interviewed Amelia Fenner with a threat to “make that your last episode”. When this didn’t discourage the journalist, Tillinghast then almost certainly arranged Amelia Fenner’s death in order to remove her as a source of information for Heawood. Tillinghast also tried a different approach with Heawood by directly engaging with him and giving him access to Dr. Willett, who was now incarcerated in Broadmoor. This was done in the hopes that Heawood would see Willett was quite mad and cease digging into Tillinghast’s family history.

When Heawood continued to resist such coercion, Tillinghast threatened legal action. However, Tillinghast had failed to notice he was still being recorded after Heawood stormed out and this recording established Sir Godfrey’s ability to communicate in the language of Yog Sothoth.

## Death

Tillinghast died in 2019 shortly after the kidnapping of Melody Cartwright in England and the disappearance of Kennedy Fisher in Iraq. Officially, his cause of death was a stroke while on a business trip to Cairo. The timing of his death is suspicious, coming so soon after having been publicly outed by Heawood as an occultist and a possible accessory to murder. However, it is not proven whether someone had a hand in his demise.

## References

1. ↑ TCoCDW: ”Episode 1”
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 TCoCDW: ”Episode 4”
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 TCoCDW: ”Episode 10”
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 TCoCDW: ”Episode 3”
5. ↑ TSoI: "Melusine"
6. ↑ TCoCDW: ”Episode 9”
7. ↑ TWiD: “Episode 1”