EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
HASDELL, Ethel Gladys
1916 - 2008 (92 years) Has 2 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
1881 - 1945 (64 years)-
Name HASDELL, Ethel Gladys Birth 28 Feb 1916 Milford, Surrey, England 
Gender Female Death 3 Apr 2008 Victoria, Australia Person ID I481 Edgoose Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
Father HASDELL, Frederick Henry, b. 1881, Duston, Northamptonshire, England d. 25 Dec 1945, Surrey South Western Registration District, Surrey (Age 64 years) Relationship natural Mother BROWNE, Emily Ada, b. 1875, Teddington, Middlesex, England d. 1968, Surrey South Western Registration District, Surrey (Age 93 years) Relationship natural Marriage 26 Dec 1903 Teddington Parish Church, Middlesex Family ID F326 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family EDGOOSE, Frank Arthur, b. 13 Jun 1904, Church Lane, Aldershot, Hampshire, England d. 3 Dec 1993, Sandown, Isle Of Wight, England (Age 89 years) Marriage 1947 Family ID F312 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Biographies 
EDGOOSE, Ethel Gladys born HASDELL (1916-2008)
Ethel Gladys HASDELL was born at Milford, Surrey, in 1916, the daughter of a butcher Frederick Henry HASDELL and Emily Ada formerly BROWNE. The 1939 Register records that she was born on 28 February 1916.
(GRO June Q 1916 Hambledon 2a 310)
Frederick Henry HASDELL had married Emily Ada BROWNE in 1903.
She had five brothers and sisters:
1. Edith Emily (Edie) born on 20 May 1905; married HASS; died 2004
2. Irene May born on 18 March 1909; married HOLTHAM; died 1992
3. Dorothy Janet (Dolly) born on 19 November 1911; unmarried; died in 2000
4. Edward J. who was born in 1914 and who died aged 1 in 1915;
5. Frederick William (Fred) born in 1921; married Kathleen M. SPENCER; died in 1996.
When she left school she went to work for Grimmond's Bakery in Godalming High Street in Surrey, mainly making cakes, and became the manageress when her employer was called up to fight in World War II.
From the 1939 Register of 32 Carlos Street, Godalming M.B., Surrey:
Frederick H. HASDELL, born 26 September 1881, butcher shopman slaughterman, married;
Emily A. HASDELL, born 21 March 1875, unpaid domestic duties, married;
Dorothy J. HASDELL, born 19 November 1911, domestic servant, single;
*Ethel G. (HASDELL) EDGOOSE, born 28 February 1916, cakemaker (caretaker crossed out), single;
3 CLOSED RECORDS
Ethel F. BETTERIDGE, born 11 April 1910, married, unpaid domestic duties.
(RG101/1900A/010/13)
During the war she volunteered as an Air Raid Warden in Godalming and probably met her future husband's brother Raymond who had similarly volunteered as a Warden in the town.
"The duties of an Air Raid Warden included: Ensuring that the blackout was observed, sounding air raid sirens, ensuring that people went into public air raid shelters in an orderly fashion, checking gas masks, evacuating areas around unexploded bombs as well as helping to rescue casualties from bomb damaged properties, finding accomodation for people who had been bombed out, judging the extent and type of damage and informing the Control Centre to send out the rescue services."
(www.wartimememories.co.uk/arpwardens.html)
It was at Grimmonds that she met Frank Arthur EDGOOSE. At the back of the baker's shop, up two or three steps, was Grimmond's cafe or restaurant where many of the town's business people and housewives had morning coffee or lunch. Frank, who lived close by, was a regular lunch-time customer and, following the breakdown of the marriage to his first wife, he and Ethel (or Ettie as she was known) were married in 1947.
(GRO June Q 1947 Surrey SW 5g 2114)
Frank was district manager for the Prudential Insurance Company, travelling all over southern England. Their first child Trevor was born in Chatham, Kent, in 1950 followed by their daughter Trudy at Taunton in Somerset in 1953. The family moved to the Isle of Wight in 1956 when Ethel was 40 years old.
She devoted her early years on the island to bringing up her two children. She said that this was one of the happiest times of her life. Later, as the children grew up, she worked in a couple of retail shops where she enjoyed the social contact. She was also a British Red Cross volunteer for several years. Her other interests included walking on the island, taking an active part in the Women's Institute, and enjoying twice weekly whist drives.
She loved playing cards with her friends, an interest she continued all her life.
Frank and Ettie moved to 11 Gordon Close, Sandown, Isle of Wight, in about 1988.
(1996 Isle of Wight telephone directory)
She travelled to Australia several times to see her children. In 1992 she brought Frank to Australia in a wheelchair from the Isle of Wight - a journey of almost 30 hours. Frank had always wanted to visit Australia and so they set off to fulfill his lifelong dream and to visit their grandchildren Timothy and Adam for the first time.
Frank died eighteen months later from prostrate cancer after a long illness.
(GRO December Q 1993 I.O.W. 5561B B55A 136)
In 1994 she flew to Australia to be at Trevor and Sandie's wedding and to see her latest grandchild, Trudy's daughter Rebecca.
In January 1996, emigrating to Australia at the age of 79, she arrived just in time for the birth of Trudy's daughter Naomi.
After about five weeks in Australia she moved to the Village retirement village and quickly settled into village life. She made friends easily and developed new interests - drawing, pottery, craft and working in the kiosk. She led a busy, activive life and went on many trips with the village. She was always helping the older village residents, watering their gardens, collecting their mail and newspapers, baking cakes and bread and butter puddings, and just being a friend. Above all she enjoyed living close to her daughter Trudy, son-in-law Ronald, and her three grandchildren, Adam, Rebecca and Naomi and loved family get-togethers when Trevor and Sandie and grandson Timothy visited from interstate. She confided in her family that these were the happiest days of her life.
She loved Australia and was very proud and excited to be accepted as an Australian citizen in 1998.
In July 2000 an internet search of Victorian telephone directories showed that she was living at 8 Robinsons Road, Baxter 3911. This was in the retirement village.
She died in Frankston Hospital on 3 April 2008 at the age of 92 just ten days after falling ill. According to Legacy.com, an obituary appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper on 5 April 2008.
NOTES & QUERIES:
The above is based on personal research and on letters and e-mails received over the years from her son Trevor EDGOOSE and on Timothy TREGENZA's eulogy at her funeral.
***Obtain a copy of the Herald Sun obituary on 5 August 2008 from Trove.
(revised 09.02.2026)