h:f_hasell
Frances Eva Hasell (1886 -1974)
Eva Hasell was born in Dalemain Penrith Cumberland, England. Her father was John Edward Hasell, Squire of Dalemain. Hasell attended St. Christopher’s College in Blackheath. She became involved in fund raising in the diocese of Carlisle for the Church of England Missionary Society in Canada. The fund was called the Archbishops’ Western Canada Fund and worked to send supplies to fifty British clergy every year for ten years.1) Hasell drove an ambulance for the Red Cross during the First World War, nursed in a military hospital, and studied mechanics so she could fix her own vehicle.2) She first visited western Canada in 1920 and then dedicated fifty-two years of summers spreading the gospel in western Canada.3)
In the 1920s Hasell’s van covered 15,000 miles of often very bad road. The Anglican Church started supporting Hasell’s mission in 1924. During the depression, her van delivered clothing to the rural poor. She was a founder of the hospital in Fort St. John, British Columbia.4)
The “vanners” travelled in pairs and Hasell started the program with women for women. It was not usual for women to drive cars in North America between the wars and the van traversed some very difficult country.5) Eva Hasell received the Order of the British Empire in 1935. She was the first woman to receive the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Emmanuel College. In 1969, she was invested with the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada.6) Eva Hassel and Miss Iris Sayles, another English teacher, started operating along the Alaska Highway in 1949.7) They drove their van along the highway for ten summers.8) They were affectionately called the Brownies because of their tailored brown uniforms.9) The Yukon Museum of Transportation holds one of Eva Hasell’s vans in the collection.10)
Hasell donated the land for the first Haines Junction Anglican Church, a building erected in 1959 but no longer standing.11) St. Agnes Hostel in Whitehorse was founded by Eva Hasell and she put Miss Smith and Miss Johnson in charge.12)
1)
, 3)
, 6)
Vera K. Fast, “Missionary on Wheels: Frances Hatton Eva Hasell and the Caravan Mission.” Thesis for Master of Arts, University of Manitoba, 1978. 2018 website: https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/handle/1993/3515?show=full
2)
, 4)
Anne Innis Dagg, The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945. Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2001: 127.
5)
Marilyn Barber, “The Motor Caravan Mission: Anglican Women Workers on the Canadian Frontier in the New Era” in Elizabeth Gillan Muir and Marilyn Fardig Whiteley, eds., Changing Roles of Women within the Christian Church in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995: 223-231.
8)
“The Anglican Church of Canada (Episcopal), Diocese of Yukon, Christ Church.” Brochure
9)
“More About the Vanners.” Northern Lights, No. 99, Advent, 1983: 21.
12)
Manuscript “Summery of the Anglican Church in Yukon” by Archdeacon Allan Haldenby of Dawson in 1957 and updated by Lee Sax and Bishop Ronald Ferris in 1991.
h/f_hasell.txt · Last modified: 2024/11/12 19:56 by sallyr