Community Contributed
Ethel Mary Treen
Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:54:49+00:00| Date of birth | 03/08/1889 |
| Date of death | 16/08/1968 |
| Mothers name | Sarah Ann Fabb |
| Spouses name | Thomas William Treen |
| Mothers date of birth | 13/12/1847 |
| Spouses date of birth | 4/10/1888 |
| Mothers place of birth | Milton, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Spouses place of birth | Masterton, North Island, New Zealand |
| Mothers iwi or nationality | British |
| Mothers date of death | 04/05/1918 |
| Spouses date of death | 01/05/1969 |
| Fathers date of birth | 02/06/1849 |
| Mothers place of death | Grove Cottage, Grove road, Mitcham, Surrey, England |
| Spouses place of death | Palmerston North, North Island, New Zealand |
| Fathers name | Clement William Benger |
| Fathers place of birth | Lower Street, Road, Southwick, Wiltshire, England |
| Marriage date | 17/09/1918 |
| Fathers iwi or nationality | British |
| Parents date of marriage | 26/04/1873 |
| Place of marriage | Baptist Church, Mitcham Lane, Strentham, England |
| Parents place of marriage | Hackney, Middlesex, England |
| Fathers date of death | 02/01/1913 |
| Fathers place of death | Grove Cottage, Grove Road, Mitcham, Surrey, England |
| Fathers occupation | Florist and nurseryman |
| Cause of death | Carcinoma of Signoid Colon - 16 months |
| Buried where | Old Levin Cemetery, Tiro Tiro Road, Levin, North island, New Zealand |
| Places of relevance | Mitcham, London, Masterton, Levin, Petone. |
| Last known residence | 54 Winchester Street, Levin, North Island, New Zealand |
| Previous names | Benger |
| Place of birth | Allen's Cottage, East fields, Mitcham, England |
| Occupation | Teacher, nurse |
| Nationality or Iwi | British |
| Place of death | 54 Winchester Street, Levin, North Island, New Zealand |
| Spouses Iwi or nationality | European New Zealander |
by historymanEthel Mary Benger was born on the 3rd of August 1889 in Allen's cottage, East Fields, Mitcham, England, she was the youngest child of a family of six, belonging to the strict Baptist family of Clement William and Sarah Ann Benger. Her father Clement and brothers controlled glasshouses full of produce for the Covent Garden Markets in London.
Ethel trained as a teacher at the London Training College and used to tell her family stories of putting matteresses on the floor to the protect the children underneath, during the Zeppelin raids on London during the 1914-18 War.
Ethel used her spare time during the War years to help with the War effort and she Volunteered at the Waltham on Thames Hospital for injuried New Zealand Soldiers. It is here she met Thomas William Treen (her future husband) who was hospitalised for an acute attack of dysentry contracted in the Egyptian desert in 1916. Ethel used to care to Thomas and love soon flourished between the two.
A wedding was planned but was postponed on the death of Ethel's mother, her father having died much earlier. At this Wedding her nieces, Freda Benger and Peggy Smith and her step-niece Elsie Smith expected to be bridesmaids wearing Apricot frocks and mop caps.
After the posponement Tom was ordered back to the War Zone and the Wedding later took place quietly on the 17th of September 1918 in Ethel's home church, Baptist Church, Mitcham Lane, Mitcham, Surrey, England. At this time Freda was in Scotland on holiday and unable to be bridesmaid.
After the War came to a close in late 1918 and Thomas's war service was coming to a end in early 1919, Thomas was to go back to New Zealand. Ethel was torn as she loved her hometown and country but knew as a loving wife she had to support her husband and follow him where he went. Ethel and Thomas left England on the troopship the Rimutaka on 1919. Ethel and Thomas decided to settle in Thomas's hometown of masterton and brought a house with a soldier's loan in Pownall Street. A girl was stillborn on the 12th of October 1919.
The first years in New Zealand were difficult for Ethel, which was made worst by acute homesickness and the loss of her first child.
On the 22nd of October 1921 Beryl Ellen was born and later, after a move to Levin for Thomas to take up a job at the Chronicle. Bryan Benger was born on the 22nd August 1923. Shirley Ethel Agnes was born on 3rd August 1926 (Ethel's birthday) in a brand new house at 54 Winchester Street, Levin, followed by William Ivan, who was born in the same house. This completed Thomas and Ethel's family.
During these years Tom and Ethel maintained a strong interest in Methodism, teaching in the Sunday School, singing in the choir, attending the Trust and Quarterly meetings, the Ladies Guild and the missionary fellowship in all of which one of them held office.
Ethel also took an interest in the Woman's Institute, serving as secretary, treasurer and President over the years, proudly wearing her long-service badge. The woman's Division of Federated farmers and the Temperance Union were also organisations to which she belonged. In June 1938, when Ethel was moving from Levin to KoroKoro, Wellington she was presented with a posy and a laquer vase given to her by her fellow members of the Woman's Institute as parting gifts.
In her later years Ethel became a keen stamp collector. This interest seems to have been kindled some years earlier, while still resident in Levin, she attended an institute conference in Dunedin, where a relative of her bagrie friends in Levin gave her a set of stamps. Later, while on a visit to England in the late 1950s another friend gave her a set of early victorian stamps. Upon her death an attempt was made to encourage Thomas to continue the colection but when this failed Beryl was offered the collection.
Ethel died at her home of 54 Winchester Street, Levin on the 16th of August 1968 at the age of 79 years old from Carcinoma of the signoid which she had for 16 months prior to death. If Ethel had lived another month and a day longer she and Thomas would have celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on the 17th September 1968.
A Service was held for Ethel at the St. John's Methodist Church in Levin on the 19th of August 1968 at 2pm and she was buried at the Levin cemeter on the same da.
by historyman 
by historyman