Anne's Family Tree

Anne Molver was born in 1934 in Rawalpindi, India (now in post-partition Pakistan), where her father John Armstrong Hubert was serving as a British Officer in the Indian Army. Anne's mother, Magdalene Rawson O'Dell (known as Mag), was with her husband in India in the early period but during the Second World War she had to fend for herself and daughter Anne, only having brief ‘stolen’ meetings when John was between combat operations.   

Both Anne and, to a greater extent, her elder brother Peter John Rawson Hubert were educated in England - in 1938 Peter was left under the guardianship of his paternal aunt Marjorie, who also provided a home for Anne for two years after the end of the war.   

Peter decided to be a farmer, initially in England and subsequently he and his family were many years in Zimbabwe, leaving that country only after the death of his first wife Barbara in 2001 and when the political situation had become too unbearable. He emigrated to Australia in 2005 and married his second wife, Beverley Gibbs, who he first met in Zimbabwe when they were farming neighbours.   

Anne’s paternal grandfather was Horatio John Hubert who died before she was born. He was a talented musician and composer, and for many years the leading light in Jersey (Channel Islands) music circles. Horatio's wife, Blanche Delia Freeth came from a distinguished English military family that included several Generals.   

Anne's maternal grandfather was Edward Rawson O'Dell who worked successfully at the London Stock Exchange. Edward's wife, Ethel Ida Lockie, came from a large Scottish family who became distributed about the world through trade and emigration. Anne never met either of these grandparents, who died young within a year of each other, when their eldest child Mag was only twenty-one. 

Anne became an agricultural economist after finishing her teens on the small home farm in Devon, England, which her parents bought when they were forced to leave India in 1948. After a two-year sojourn in Southern Rhodesia, she worked on other farms in England when she finally decided that farm economics was to be her main interest and livelihood. This took her to Wiltshire, England, and then to South Africa for eight years, where she worked as an economic advisor for several properties mainly in the south eastern part of the country. During this period she met and married Iver Molver in 1974. 

In 1977 Anne and Iver emigrated to Australia. The first six years were spent working in Sydney and getting to know New South Wales. The state's mid north coast became a huge drawcard which could not be missed, so in 1984 they built a house near the beach south of Port Macquarie - Anne’s mother Mag came to live with them for the last five years of her life. After 10 years they built and moved to a new house in the small town of Kendall where they had many friends - Anne remained there for ten years before the two-acre property became too big to manage. 

All this time she worked as a management accountant before retiring in 2000 to have the long awaited Europe to Turkey tour with Iver. Various family reasons had necessitated three trips to Africa and the UK in the 90s, taking up holiday entitlements. Sadly, Iver died in 2003 after a severe stroke. Anne spent her spare time before and after retirement helping run community organisations, including music festivals, a choir and the Kendall technology access center. 

Dave’s father Frank died in 2001 leaving his second wife Irene to fend for herself. The house was too much for her to manage and she did not look after herself sufficiently. As a result, Anne, who was a long-time friend of Irene, spent many hours on the phone to Dave trying to sort out Irene’s many and increasingly difficult problems. This also led to more contact, a trekking trip to New Zealand in 2008, Dave moving much closer, ... - the catalyst for the start of what Anne calls her “sixth life”!