Lithgow's William Mantle assisted the Royal family on three visits to Parramatta in the 1970s

William Aubrey Mantle, known as Bill to his family and friends was born in 1920 in Newcastle but moved to Lithgow immediately after his birth. According to his great niece, Peri Peniel, he assisted the Royal family on their three visits to Parramatta in the 1970s.

Bill had a tough upbringing. His father was William 'Pummy' Mantle a pioneering Lithgow rugby league player and original ANZAC who returned to Lithgow after the Great War. Pummy initially lived with his mother Kate and struggled to maintain employment in the Small Arms factory, and later as a miner for the State Mine.

Fortunately, he met Ruby Mortyne (nee Beal). During the War, Ruby had married a drunkard who deserted her as the War ended. She found love with Pummy and as a result their only child, Bill, was born. Bill's formative years were spent on the streets of Lithgow. He excelled at Lithgow Public School in reading and writing and loved to bike race with the Lithgow Cycle Club and for enjoyment peddle in the surrounding valleys.

When the Depression hit, Pummy lost his mining job, and the family drifted to Sydney.

Life was not bright as his father battled with the effects of shrapnel wounds, long term dysentery symptoms and lung problems. To add to the family woes, the son, Bill, ended up in the isolated Waterfall Sanatorium south of Sydney with the 'white death' - tuberculosis when he was about 19-years-old.

Cut off from family life in the strict quarantine of the sanatorium, Bill fought back and by 1943, he had beaten the disease and married for the first time. His first wife, Yvonne Shepherd, was raised in Dungog and Katoomba. A son, John was born after Christmas 1944. The marriage was cut short when Yvonne died in 1967.

Bill was a bright, optimistic man. He had a variety of jobs. He was a public relations officer for Liverpool Council, a restaurateur in Port Macquarie, an editor with Cumberland Newspapers and a caretaker/manager of Old Government House in Parramatta. He had learnt to fly small aircraft in his spare time.

In 1970, at age 50 years he was remarried in a double ceremony at The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross by Rev Ted Noffs. His second wife Joanna Revell, much younger than him, worked as an information officer for Parramatta Council.

It was while Bill and Joanna were live-in caretakers at Old Government House in Parramatta Park that they became hosts to royalty. By April 1970, the National Trust had completed a restoration of Old Government House Parramatta, and Queen Elizabeth II had agreed to open it as a museum. She was primarily in Australia to commemorate the arrival of Captain Cook. This was her third visit. On her first visit in 1954 she had called into Lithgow.

Most white Australians were delirious with excitement recalling Cook dropping anchor in Botany Bay. The popularity of the visit to Old Government House was so great that Parramatta Park was opened for 20,000 car spaces.

Bill's great niece Peri recalled, "I was about 10 years at the time. My aunt, Joanne, was married to Bill, and both of them had been working at the Government House. I recall there were a lot of people around, and I must have looked bewildered because the Governor Roden Cutler allowed me to sit in the back of his vehicle at one point."

Five years later (1975), the Royals returned to Old Government House, Parramatta. On this occasion, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and sister to Queen Elizabeth was expected to lunch with members of the National Trust. She was 45-years-old, attractive, a woman who could easily change from being deadly formal to flirtatious. She was wearing a pale blue beige silk dress that one journalist said showed off her 'neat waist'. Although married to Anthony Armstrong-Jones at this time, Margaret had enjoyed a plethora of extra marital affairs. She was in Australia primarily to attend engagements connected with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps. She was, after all, the commander in chief of the corps.

There was drama before Princess Margaret arrived. A large semi-trailer packed with circus equipment had blocked the access road to the venue. You could imagine the controlled panic of Bill and other staff to avert disaster. The police called in a local mechanic who avoided a diplomatic incident with a dodgy repair. The Princess was unaware of the hiccup and was ushered onto the grounds of the historical house. She was introduced by the Chairman of the Parramatta Foundation committee Mr Lentler to Bill and Joanna who held the positions of Secretary and committee person respectively. Margaret sat down for lunch to enjoy mousse with seafood and medallions of lamb.

After lunch, Princess Margaret was driven a few kilometres across Parramatta to Experiment Farm Cottage. Bill and Joanna helped steer the royal and other guests through the formalities. This cottage was built in 1835 and was the site of the first white land grant in Australia. Wheat grown for the occasion was ready to be harvested. Two pupils of James Ruse Agricultural High School reaped two sheafs of wheat and presented them to the Princess.

The third brush with fame occurred two years later on November 6, 1977 when the young 29-year-old Prince Charles was only weeks away from meeting his future wife, Diana Spencer. Charles was escorted to Cumberland Oval Parramatta to observe a Little Athletics carnival, and afterwards to lunch at Lancer Barracks. The Barracks were built by Governor Macquarie in 1820. It was here that Bill and Joanna walked the Prince over the grounds and manoeuvred him through the 350 youth club members. Lunch was informal. A barbeque.

When asked by the volunteer cooks how he liked his sausages, the Prince replied "Crisp".

Not one to let an opportunity to banter pass him by, the Prince followed up his culinary request and asked the cooks, "Are you professionals?"

" No" was the reply, "We are lawyers, but we are bloody good cooks."

In later life, Bill and Joanna were drawn back to the Lithgow district, and they settled at Baaners Lane, Little Hartley. Bill dabbled in acting, maintained his pilot's licence and wrote music. He used to love flying with his niece Peri over the Blue Mountains to the foothills surrounding Lithgow. And no doubt reminisced of his carefree days in the 1930's cycling in the bush around Lithgow.

Bill's purpose-filled life quietly ended in 2002 in Little Hartley at the age of 82 years. A life worth remembering. A local Lithgow boy, a child of the Great Depression, who rubbed shoulders for a short time with some of the most famous celebrities of the twentieth century.

- Peter Baker

References: Correspondence of Ms Periel with writer, Lithgow Mercury, Parramatta Advertiser, and The Sydney Morning Herald archives.