The four Manwaring children (from left), Maurice, Kate, Keith and Doreen — in 1938, just one month before their mother died. Photo: Barbara Johnson.
When Maurie Manwaring looks back on his childhood in Harden-Murrumburrah, he remembers many interesting times.
He also remembers loss and hardship.
And he remembers a father, Herb, who worked harder than most men despite having only one hand.
Today, Maurice is 92 and still plays golf three times a week at Harden Country Club. His sister Kathleen is 94. Brother Keith is 95. And eldest sister Doreen is about to turn 97.
Nearly 90 years after losing their mother and growing up through the hardships of the Depression and war years, all four siblings remain active, independent and deeply engaged with life.
For Maurie’s daughter, Barb Johnson, the reasons are a mix of family traits and the circumstances that shaped them.
“I think having to raise and rely on themselves without a mother, and with a father away working long days, really gave them the resilience and grit to survive,” she said.
“They learned from an early age that you had to work hard to get on. No handouts or rescuers.”
The Manwaring siblings are part of a family story that has unfolded in the region for more than 170 years.
Herb Manwaring’s great-grandparents, William and Sarah Manwaring, emigrated from Kent, England, in the 1850s with their 10 children and settled around Jugiong.
Herb was born at Nubba, near Murrumburrah, in 1904 and left Cullinga Mines School after only a few months of formal education.
As a young man, he suffered a catastrophic accident while feeding a chaff cutter, losing his right hand.
It was an injury that would define neither the man nor the life that followed.
During the Depression, Herb spent six weeks riding around the district searching for work, often being turned away because of his disability.
Barbara believes the way he responded became the defining story of the family.
“I think the story of a one-armed man riding the Depression years looking for work and being rejected, then getting a team of horses no-one wanted, working out a way to harness a five-furrow plough, 14-run combine and a 10-disc plough with one arm and eventually proving his worth to get a permanent job, then saving enough to buy his own block — that captures the spirit of those times and the Manwarings’,” she said.
Herb eventually built a successful farming operation and became known locally for his work ethic.
In memoirs written earlier this year, Maurie recalled watching his father plough, fence, cart wool, cut timber and run a farm.
“He did the physical work of two men with one hand,” he said.
But the family’s greatest tragedy came in the late 1930s when, during a family visit to relatives in Cowra, Eva suffered a freak injury when a lantern bulb struck her eye. What initially appeared to be a minor accident led to complications, and she later died while undergoing emergency surgery in Sydney.
The four Manwaring siblings — Maurice, Kate, Keith and Doreen — are all still thriving in their 90s. Background illustration of Murrumburrah created using Canva AI.
The couple’s four children were left without a mother.
Doreen was nine. Keith was seven. Kathleen was six. Maurice was four.
The loss shaped all of them.
“I feel they learned at a young age it was up to them,” Barbara said.
“They are great carers for others, and very generous.”
Maurice’s memoirs offer a glimpse of life in Harden after Eva’s death.
He remembered being carried to school because he was too upset to go by himself. He recalled living on rabbits, bread and dripping, chasing the baker’s cart for warm loaves and going barefoot until high school.
Yet despite those beginnings, all four children went on to build remarkable lives.
Doreen attended Wagga Teachers College and became a teacher before marrying Donald Vernon, who later became chairman of Bougainville Copper and CEO of Rio Tinto Australia.
Keith excelled academically before forging a career in local government. In retirement, he gained his pilot’s licence at 80 and went on to build and fly his own ultralight aircraft.
Kathleen trained as a nurse and worked in Murrumburrah, Sydney and at Yarrabah Mission, near Cairns, before settling in Canberra, where she remains active in gardening and community life.
Maurice left school early to help support his father before building a farming enterprise with his wife, Marjorie, near McMahons Reef.
Today he remains the oldest living member of Harden Country Club and still plays regularly.
Barb remembers her grandfather Herb as a quiet, kind man who worked tirelessly to provide for his family.
“He was very proud of all of his children,” she said.
She recalls his faithful dog Butch, his battered red ute and seeing him rest the stump of his arm on the driver’s window as he travelled around the district.
Although Herb died in 1970 at just 66 and Eva at 30, their influence remains visible in the lives of their children.
Asked what would make Herb and Eva most proud today, Barbara does not cite careers, achievements or longevity.
Instead, she points to the way her father and his siblings continue to approach life.
“Without a doubt, the still-undiminished interest in life and all that it holds,” she said.
Nearly a century after they were born in Harden-Murrumburrah, there is still the teacher, the former local government leader and pilot, the nurse and the farmer.
“They do not seem to be fading,” Barbara said.
“When most people are winding down, they are powering through these final decades, wringing every last bit out of life and taking nothing for granted.”
For Maurice, it all comes back to Herb and Eva.
In his memoirs, he reflects on the example they set and the lives that followed.
“This is a testimony that a hard start to life, although setting you apart, can put you in good stead for the future, if you have the heart and drive to get there,” he wrote.
“My Mum and Dad had short, hard lives. I like to think that their four children still being alive is a tribute to them.”
Original Article published by Edwina Mason on About Regional.
