Profile on the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Alfred (Alf) George Stafford has excellent detailed profiles on the Indigenous Australians Dictionary of Biography and the Australians Dictionary of Biography.
1906 – Birth of Alfred George Stafford
On 29 April 1906, Alfred George Stafford was born in the district of Coonabarabran, New South Wales. He was the son of John Allen Stafford, a labourer who was 49 years old, and Mary Ann Blackman, who was 39 years old. He was the youngest of 12 children.
1914 – Photo of Alf Stafford in Binnaway
1929 – Joined the Royal Australian Artillery
On 14 February 1929, Alf joined the 1st Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, as a gunner.
1 July 1930 – Discharge from the Australian Military
On 1 July 1930, Alf was medically discharged from the Australian Military at Victoria Barracks.
His discharge paperwork states: His Conduct and Character while serving in the 1st Field Battery R.A.A. has been according to the Records: Very good.
Special Qualifications: Honest, sober, trustworthy, industrious, clean and intelligent. An exceptionally good man and all round sportsman.
1 July 1930 – Alf Stafford moved to Canberra
The below information is quoted from the book: Past Images, Present Voices: Kingston and Thereabouts Through a Box Brownie. Collected and compiled by Val Emerton, Canberra, Stories Group, Canberra, 1996.
Page 137
Alf Stafford
‘Prime Ministers come and go but Alf Stafford goes on forever’
Alf Stafford is a well-known ‘old timer’ in the Canberra region. He arrived here in 1930, too late for the opening of Parliament, but not long after his arrival he became closely involved with politicians through his job as Commonwealth car driver and later in the Cabinet office where he looked after the needs of a long line of Prime Ministers.
He first lived in a boarding house in Telopea Park near the Power House, close to his work at the Government Stores and later the Transport Department. For a short time he ran a billiard saloon in the Kingston shops, and brought several well-known snooker players to Canberra to put on exhibitions.
He was a sportsman of note, and has gone down in history as the cricketer to whom the first ball was bowled at the newly opened Manuka Oval in 1930. He started to play bowls when he gave up cricket in 1936 or ’37. Although still very active, he is now unable to participate in sports, but is a well-known identity at the local race meetings, and never misses a visiting cricket or lawn bowls team.
Kennedy Street, Kingston, 1930s. Alf Stafford ran his billiard saloon from a nearby shop.
Page 138
After his first marriage he built one of the early private homes in in NSW Crescent in Barton next to Telopea Park School and on former Rottenberry farmland. The family lived in this house for many years.
The Depression brought many young men to Canberra looking for work and there was a certain cameraderie amongst them. Alf became involved in the that community mainly through his commercial enterprise and his participation in sporting activities. Once he found a more settled career he took it up with gusto and made a great success of it.
Alf Stafford
I am eighty-nine (1995) and was the baby of twelve in our family – I’m the only one left though. I was lucky to get a feed so I can handle anything.
When I first came here on 1 July 1930, JB Young’s was the main shop and a friend of mine was the manager – JC Strong, Doug Strong’s father. I used to work for old JC in Binnaway, the little town where I was born. I worked as a grocer after I left school and got ten bob a week. I’ll never forget JC – he had an old T-model Ford and before he came here he was looking to buy another store so I went with him and we went right up through Tamworth, Gunnedah and all that area to Gravesend. From Warialda to Gravesend the road was terrible in those days – I will never forget it – when you drove those old T model Fords you sort of ran out of legs because they had three pedals on the floor-gear levers and that sort of thing.
We came to the Barwon River and it was in flood. JC was an impetuous old bloke and he wanted to be in Gravesend that night, so he said, ‘What’ll we do?’ and I said, ‘You can’t cross here – look at those great logs coming down, and there’s only the railway bridge left’. Anyhow I ended up driving the T model Ford over the railway bridge, with the right hand wheels lined up along the track – I just hoped the left hand ones were still on the bridge! When we got to Gravesend I thought to myself ‘If we had of fallen in it would have been Gravesend all right’. Eventually, JC decided to come to Canberra and took over Young’s.
After JC left Binnaway, I went into the permanent army the Royal Austral- ian Artillery – and was later superannuated out during the Depression. I came to Canberra because this friend of mine from Binnaway, Jack Sutherland, was working here with JB Young’s and he advised me to come because there was work here. I came up here to stay with Jack for ten days and I’m still here. I got my first job here in 1931.
Page 139
I boarded down on Telopea Park in a boarding house named ‘Crockford’. Bill Lavender was my first roommate – Sammy Dee was there too – he worked at the government Stores. Perce Douglas lived in the house next door and Reg Crapp was on the other side.
I was married at St John’s in 1932 and I bought my first home in NSW Crescent, one of the last blocks in Barton. Old Jim Perry built it – he was a beautiful builder. Charlie Gumley was the brickie on my place, and the sewerage was done by Arthur Staples. Telopea Park must have once been a river and all the good soil had got washed down from further up -it was very good soil. I grew twenty-eight different vegetables there – you had to do it to survive in those days.
I remember those little houses that were built down near the Power House in the early days – they were called the Tenements in the ’30s – from the Sandwash back towards the Power House. When they pulled them down they made more or less a dump there with the rubbish from the Power House.
When I came here the shops in Kennedy Street were all established and I later bought the billiard saloon next to JC Gunn, the Newsagents.
I organised an exhibition game with Horace Lindrum, the Snooker champion. He came up for the night and stayed with us at Telopea Park.I charged two bob a head and we had about 200 people watching. The first game I broke them up and he potted the lot! I said, ‘You’d better give me a start in this next frame Horace’, and he replied, ‘No, Alf, I can’t give you a start – I haven’t seen you play yet’. I had a lot of customers in those days mainly from the Printers’ Quarters. There was no drink allowed on my premises of course but some of the fellows used to go to the old Canberra Cafe, where Cusacks are now. Jim Kaye managed the Canberra Cafe, one of the first licensed places to serve alcohol after prohibition, and he later managed the Hotel Kingston.
I worked at the Stores for a while, Charlie Francis was in charge. We used to call Charlie Francis ‘Mr Bowls’ because he started the first Bowling Club in Canberra on a green between the Albert Hall and the Hotel Canberra. I will never forget Charlie planting a tree at the Kembla Bowling Club – he got down on his knees and blessed it – ‘May you grow into a beautiful big tree’. He was a remarkable man, a real old character.
In the early days of the Transport Department, when the War Memorial was being shifted from Melbourne to Canberra, there were cases and cases of exhibits to go from the Railway to the Memorial. Frank Smith, a truck driver who was very dark
Page 140.
skinned and a real larrikin, loved to play jokes on everybody. This particular day Frank got dressed up in an Arab’s uniform and he climbed into one of the crates. Just as Ron Bissett was walking past, Frank winked at him. Poor old Ron dropped the boxes and went for his life, yelling ‘That bloody Arab’s alive!’.
I’ve always been a keen racing man – but not a big punter. Sometimes I go to the races and don’t even make a bet – but when it rains we often get wet inside as well as outside. I’ve been mixed up with racing now for over fifty years, a judge for over twenty years and on the Committee for many years. They made me a life member in 1968.
I joined the Government Transport Department as a car driver and for seventeen years I had the job of driving Sir Robert Menzies. Sir Robert had a special place for me, he was a kind, considerate man. My present wife was housekeeping for the Menzies – our wedding reception was at the Lodge. I later worked as a Cabinet Officer and part of my job was to make tea for the members. I brewed tea for ten Prime Ministers from the time I started in 1939 – I made tea for Lyons, Menzies, Page, Ford, Curtin, Chifley, Fadden, Menzies again, Holt, McEwen, and Gorton. Mr Chifley loved tea any way it came, and used to call it a ‘dish’ of tea – – I really liked him – he was a gentleman. In my twenty-nine years of working for the Cabinet I’ve seen and heard a lot.
They used to say ‘Prime Ministers come and go but Alf Stafford goes on forever’ – I wish it was true.
Alf Stafford: The one that didn’t get away!
1934 – Marriage to Edith Mary Dignam
On 28 April 1934, Alf married Edith Mary Dignam at Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Reid.
Alf and Edith had three children: John, David, and Diana.
1954 – Edith Passed Away
On 29 April 1954, Alf’s wife Edith passed away.
1956 – Marriage to Heather Nesbitt
1972 – Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Alf retired from the public service in 1972 and was appointed MBE that year ‘for dedicated service to several Prime Ministers’ (Governor General 1972).
1996 – Alf Passed Away
On 18 September 1996, Alf passed away.
OBITUARY: A. G. Stafford
Prime ministerial driver, sportsman
The funeral will be held today of one of Canberra’s beloved figures, A. G. “Alf” Stafford, official driver for at least three Australian prime ministers.
A long-time Canberra resident, he came to the city in the 1920s and in the 1930s opened a billiards room at Kingston.
He had been a first-class cricketer in Sydney and captained the Federal Capital Territory side for four years against NSW and other visiting teams.
In the 1930s he joined the Commonwealth Car service and became driver for Robert Menzies and later John Curtin and Ben Chifley during their periods as prime minister.
During World War II when Curtin was called to an emergency meeting in Melbourne, Alf drove him there at night in a record-breaking six hours 30 minutes.
He rejoined Menzies and later transferred to an inside job as hospitality officer for the Cabinet in Old Parliament House. He held that post through the 1960s and into the 1970s. He was made an MBE in 1972. Always cheery and solicitous, he mastered the art of the very dry Martini favoured by Menzies. He and the prime minister frequently went to the cricket together at Manuka Oval.
He retained a life-long love of billiards and until recently still played socially.
His funeral will be at the Chapel of the Norwood Park Crematorium at Mitchell today at 4pm.
Robert Macklin
Alfred George M.B.E. September 18, 1996.
Aged 90 years. Loved and loving husband of Heather, father and father-in-law of John and Beryl, David and Helen, Diana and Garry, and Joanne. Grandfather of Kim and Ella, Leanne, Catherine. Belinda and Andrew. Andrew, Michelle, Peta, Nikki and Glen, Mark, Darren and Justin. Great-grandfather of Tara. Luke and Mitchell.
Will be missed greatly by all who loved him.
STAFFORD.- The funeral of Mr Alfred George Stafford (M.B.E.) will be held in the Chapel of the Norwood Park Crematorium, Bellenden St, Mitchell, TODAY Friday, September 20 with the service commencing at 4pm.
Tobin Brothers
FUNERAL DIRECTORS AFDA Kingston: Ph (06) 295 2799
2023 – Alf Stafford Park launched
On 5 September 2023, the launched of the official naming of the Alf Stafford Park took place in Kingston, Australian Capital Territory.
Kitty of the Warmuli Clan of the Dharug people & Joseph Budworth 