Perring Family History

Mary V (i)(a) & brother Francis George Perring (i)(a). 

Francis George Perring (i)(a). Born August 6, 1906. Died July 20 1996. Francis Perring (i)(a) was the son of George Alfred (i)(a) and Bridget Perring both of whom were born into pioneering farming families from the Seelands and Carrs Creek areas near Grafton, NSW, settling in the 1860s.

Francis (i)(a) spent his school days at both Alumy Creek and Seelands schools and in his teens worked with his father and uncles and also on the local riverboats where he gained his steam boiler ticket.

During his 20s he worked in Sydney, NSW and Brisbane, Qld until the death of his father in 1930, when he returned to the Clarence river area.

He married Joan Craig in 1932 at Barretts Creek where they share farmed until successfully tendering for the operation of the Southampton ferry service.

At the expiry of the tender the family moved to Jackadgery where Francis (i)(a) worked as a plant operator for the Department of Main Roads until enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1939.

On his return in 1945 he started a small contracting business, operating until 1955 when he took a position as a boiler operator at the then new Grafton brewery, then to the Grafton Base Hospital and finally the Grafton Dairy Co-op from where he retired.

Francis (i)(a) spent a lot of his early retirement relieving some of his old mates working boilers around Grafton, until his health began to fail and he retired for good.

Francis (i)(a) lived through two world wars and served in one and raised a family through the depression.

Francis (i)(a) and Joan Perring had the following children.

Shirley Joan Perring (i)(a). Born 20 March 1932 in Grafton, NSW.

Alfred John Perring (i)(a). Born 2 July 1936. 

Shirley Joan Perring (i)(a) married Rodney Raymond Darling, born, Dubbo, NSW, 21 February 1932, in Grafton Baptist Church on 14 August 1954. 

Shirley Joan Perring (i)(a) and Rodney Raymond Darling had the following children.

Wendy May. Born, Forbes, NSW on 29 June, 1955. Currently living in Sydney, NSW.

Glenn. Born, Grafton, NSW on 1 November 1957.  Currently living in Grafton, NSW.