Hazel Janet Mary DAVIES ~ 1915-1975
married 1 Apr 1944
Wilfred Edwin METCALF ~1888-1964
Hazel was a nurse when she met Wilfred Edwin Metcalf. Wilfred had been injured in WW1 while with the Light Horse. Following his return, he had to use a walking stick and his shoe was built up. After his wife died, Wilfred went to Melbourne in Victoria for an operation on his leg. Hazel was one of his nurses!
Hazel married Wilfred Edwin 'Bill' METCALF 1st April 1944 at St Marks Church of England in Camberwell in Victoria. Hazel was 29 years old and Bill was 55 years old. Bill was from Burnie in Tasmania, so that is where they went after their marriage. Bill had had ten children with his first wife, Emma May (nee Brooks). Emma had died three years previously in 1941. Bill was a Farmer and Stock Agent. He had ten children with his first wife, Emma May (Brooks). In WW1, he was in the Light Horse in 1917, then with the Artillery Unit from 1918 to 1920. Of Wilfred and Emma's children in 1944, the youngest children were still at home - Keith (13), Dot (14), and possibly Marie (18). By 1949, according to the Australian Electoral Roll, all of Emma's children had left home. (Assuming Keith had been old enough to register for the Electoral Roll of 1949. If not, he may have still been at home.) Wilfred and Hazel had two children, Stewart Wilfred born 12 November 1945 and fourteen months later, Suzanne Mary 24th February 1947. One wonders how Keith, Dot and Marie coped with babies in their home. Wilfred, Hazel & baby Stewart went to live with one of Wilfred's daughters for a time in 1946, between rental homes. That daughter's family lived on a farm. It is understood that many from the first family had difficulty adjusting to their father having a new wife and family. Life was not easy for Hazel who was an emotional person and struggled to stand up to Wilfred's strong personality. Wilfred was a labourer and often worked on farms. At another time he spent a few years trapping rabbits down the West Coast of Tasmania. One of the family from his first marriage, met a man who lived in a shack that Wilfred helped him to build. Wilfred must have been quite a handyman. One of his children from the first marriage recalls that when they were growing up, the family were very poor. One of the houses they were living in had burnt down. They never owned a house: they rented. In the course of his working life, Bill was also a Stock Agent and a Farmer at some point. Stewart and Suzanne were step-uncle and step-aunt to some of the children they went to school with in Burnie, who were the same age. Apparently, they did not acknowledge one another. Wilfred died in Burnie in 1964 aged 75 years and was buried with his first wife, Emma in the Burnie Cemetery in Tasmania. Hazel died in Burnie, Tasmania in 1975 aged 60 years and was also buried in the Burnie Cemetery. Stewart died in 2015 aged 69 years, leaving three children and three grandchildren. Suzanne died in 2018 aged 71, leaving one daughter and two grandchildren (and one deceased granddaughter). Suzanne was buried at Ulverstone, Tasmania with her husband. |