John William Godward was born into a respectable Victorian family living in Battersea, London. His father was an investment clerk in a life assurance office in Fleet Street. As a boy, he had a sheltered and somewhat claustrophobic home life dominated by his father who had in mind that his sons should follow the stable and respectable family profession of insurance and banking. The others did , but John William only for a short time. Evidence points to the family being acquainted with the noted architect, designer and renderer William Hoff Wontner, and, John William exhibiting some early drawing skills, they apparently saw little harm at the time in allowing their son to study at least rendering and graining with him during the period 1879-1881 - on a recreational basis in the evenings. This he did together with the architect's son, William Clarke Wontner, who was to become his lifelong friend. Godward was destined to become an acknowledged master of faux marble and his skill in rendering perspective and architectural elements surely had their origin in this period.