Ethel BLOCKLEY (1866-1921)

Ethel Blockley, née Hubback (1866-1921), was the wife of the Vicar of Old Basing, and it was in this household that Cyril Sladden was billeted for a short time in February 1915.

Ethel Hubback was born at Weston, Somerset, in 1866, the third of six children of Charles Robert Kerr Hubback, a Captain in the 1st Kings Dragoon Guards, and his wife, Alice Catherine (née Arbuthnot).  She was baptised at All Saints, Weston, on 3rd May 1866.

By 1871 the family had moved to Kingsbury, Middlesex, where her father was now a wine merchant.  Her father died in 1889.  In 1891 Ethel was living with her widowed mother at Eynsford Villa, St Albans.

Ethel married the Reverend Thomas Trotter Blockley at St Albans in 1892.  They had three children:  Violet Alison (1894-1989), Nigel Robertson (1898-1963) and Sybil Rosemary (1910-1952).

In the mid 1890s, the Blockleys moved to 3 Northmoor Road, Oxford, as Thomas had been appointed Chaplain at his old college, Magdalen.  They were still living there at the time of the 1911 census.

In 1912, Reverend Blockley became Vicar of Old Basing.  Cyril Sladden stayed with the Blockley family at The Vicarage, Old Basing, in February 1915.

Ethel Blockley died at Northmoor Road, Oxford, on 14th November 1921, aged 55.