Gwendoline Dorothea Julie Nielson was born on 19 February 1896 in Waverley, New South Wales, the daughter and sixth child of Norwegian born Alfred Julius Nielson, an assayer, and Martha née Maxwell.
[1] She taught in schools employed by the New South Wales Department of Public Instruction starting in 1918.
Walter Cresswell O'Reilly had become the chief Commonwealth censor and he had been joined by housewife leader Eleanor Glencross who was appointed after lobbying by women's organisations.
The fact that Hansen was a war-widow was well received as she was seen as representing the dependants of service people.
He was appointed in 1956 and Hansen retired in 1961 when she became a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.