Legacy turns on a triple treat

THREE Hobart war widows born in the same year as the Anzac landings at Gallipoli recently celebrated their upcoming birthdays with a special morning tea courtesy of Legacy.

Dot Shields, Doreen Hodgman and Effie Matthews all turn 100 later this year and are three of the 2867 widows Legacy supports in Tasmania.

Doreen’s husband Geoffrey Hodgman was sent to fight in the Middle East in December 1940 when his wife was five months pregnant with their first child, Michael.

Geoffrey returned to Tasmania 20 months later, but was soon training in Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands to prepare for the heat of Borneo, where he was stationed until the end of World War II.

While her husband was away fighting, Doreen stayed with her mother in West Hobart and helped with the war effort from home.

She said the soldiers’ wives all kept in touch.

“We would knit socks and jumpers to send away to our husbands,” Doreen said.

The couple had three more children – Meg, Adrian and Penny – with Adrian named after two uncles, from both sides of the family, who were captured by Japanese soldiers in Timor during the war.

While Doreen’s husband fought in World War II, the Hodgman family has a strong link to the ANZACs, with Geoffrey’s father’s cousin fighting at Gallipoli and Doreen’s aunt Kathleen serving as a nurse for injured soldiers, possibly in Lemnos or Cairo.

“Aunt Kath married one of the English soldiers after the war,” she said.

Doreen will celebrate her 100th birthday in October, with a party for up to 90 people planned at her daughter Penny’s home.

Hobart Legacy president Peter Hodge and Hobart City councillor Eva Ruzicka presented the three war widows with a birthday cake, flowers and cards at the morning tea.

“I was surprised and delighted to be invited,” Doreen said.

Nationally, Legacy cares for 90,000 widows who have lost a spouse or parent in service or who have a family member who was incapacitated during their military service.