The Darbyshire family from Bangor developed the granite quarries at Penmaenmawr so successfully that Godfrey Darbyshire was able to attend Rugby school where he did well academically and played Rugby Football for the school team. He went on to Balliol College Oxford where he enjoyed playing rugby and rowing for his college. "His father took him away" after 18 months. He continued with his passionate interest in Geography and was elected a Fellow of the Royal geographic society. He played cricket for Bangor and established a reputation for his immense strength by performing feats of lifting granite blocks at the family quarry. He emigrated to Florida in 1883 where he carried ut some very important surveys of the state. He became an orange farmer but tragically he died at the early age of 36 from exposure in a small boat in the sea off Key West on the Florida coast.

Godfrey Darbyshire FRGS died in Florida in 1889 at the age of 36. He played rugby for Wales against England at Blackheath in 1881, the first ever Rugby match played by Wales.