Mabel Emily Flux was born in Hambrook, Gloucestershire, England, the daughter of farmers Alfred William Flux and Emily (Hill) Flux. She learned the trade of cheesemaking in Bristol as a young woman,[1] and worked on her family's dairy farm and delivered milk with her sister Kit, while their brothers were serving in World War I.[2] "I wasn't one of the glamor Land Girls, I was just a farmer, and I turned my hand to anything and everything."[3]
Career
Hedditch took over postmistress duties at Bridgewater from her mother-in-law in 1937, and continued until 1945 when the office was closed.[4][5] She was the first woman elected to the Portland Town Council, serving from 1949 to 1964. During her time on the Town Council, she became a justice of the peace in 1954,[6] and was mayor of Portland from 1956 to 1960.[1][7] She was a founding member of the Country Women's Association of Victoria from 1937, and president of the statewide organisation from 1953 to 1955.[8] She was active in the town's social services, as president of the Old Folks Welfare Committee.[1][9]
In 1960, she was made an officer in the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[10]
Personal life
Mabel Emily Flux married Norman Samuel Forward Hedditch in 1921. Hedditch was an Australian farmer who served in World War I; they met when he was working on a farm in England. They had seven children together (Thomas, Margaret, Alfred, Robert, James, Catherine, and Geoffrey). Norman Hedditch died in 1954.[11][12] Mabel Hedditch died at home in Portland in 1966, aged 68.[1][13] Hedditch Court in Ginninderry is named for Mabel Emily Hedditch.[14]
Her brother-in-law, Harry Hedditch, served as mayor of Portland, in the 1940s.
References
^ abcdBennett, Gwen, "Hedditch, Mabel Emily (1897–1966)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 24 May 2019
Judith Pike, "The Flux and Hill Families of Hambrook", a webpage of the Frenchay Village Museum, containing several photographs of Mabel Emily Hedditch and her family.