Eric Ward, son of Manasseh and Madeline Ward

Eric and Lena Ward in 1946.

Eric Ward was born at Etna Street Gosford in December 1890, the son of Manasseh Ward and Madeline Geary Henderson.  He had three older sisters, Josephine who was 14, Madeline 12 and Amy one. He also had four brothers, William who was ten, Robert eight, Roy three and Ephraim two. Three other brothers had died in infancy.

The family remained in the Etna Street home until the following year when they moved into a new house in Gertrude Street. The new house was named ‘Myee’. Three more children would be born into the family at Myee, Lawrence (known as Pat) born in 1892, Doris (Dolly) born in 1994 and Bruce born in 1996.

Eric’s father was heavily involved in the local community and was an Alderman on the local Council when Eric was born. Manasseh would go on to serve numerous terms as Mayor, and later, Shire President. Eric’s mother had a steady independent income from a trust set up under her grandfather’s will. Like all the children, Eric had a good education, although in later life he preferred to play the role of the bushman that he no doubt learned from his father.

The Gosford of Eric’s youth was a country town and their family home was surrounded by two acres of gardens, orchards, poultry yards and horse yards. Like many of his siblings, Eric took some of his father’s interests as his own, while choosing not to pursue others. He inherited a deep love of working horses and poultry breeding from his father, but not his passion for horse racing and local government.

Eric probably started work by the time he was 16. His older brothers Bill and Roy were both working locally as agricultural contractors and bush workers, and this is probably where Eric started out as well. But he quickly built up a team of working horses and launched out on his own. He also ran a farm known as ‘the slate mines’, at the end of Maiden’s Brush Road and is described as a 'farmer' in the electoral rolls.

In 1915 Eric married Eleanor Parry, who was known as Lena.  Eric was 25 and Lena 20. The Parry family were, like the Wards, a pioneering family of the Gosford district. Lena's great-grandparents on her father's side arrives as convicts before settling at the Mangrove Creek. Lena’s father and older brothers had a variety of businesses in and around Gosford. Eric and Lena would have ten children, all of whom survived to adulthood.

Eric and Lena’s first home was at the farm on Maiden’s Brush Road. Early in 1922 they moved into Gosford where Eric built a house on the corner of Dwyer and Gertrude Streets, just across the road from his parents. The land had belonged to Manasseh for many years, and Manasseh and Madeline gave it to Eric, possibly as an encouragement to move into town from the relative isolation at the Lime Kilns property.

One of Manasseh’s interests that rubbed off on Eric was the Volunteer Ambulance. By the early 1920s Eric was a member of the Gosford ambulance squad and is recognised as one of the first ambulancemen in the Gosford district. It was a difficult job, particularly given that there was no proper hospital in the town. The Gosford Hospital would not open until after World War II. The ambulancemen used a wheeled stretcher to transport patients when needed. If the patient had to be brought in from an outlying property, the stretcher would sometimes be rigged to be horse drawn. Patients who were seriously ill or injured were transported to hospital in Sydney by train. The train would be met by a horse-drawn ambulance to take the patients to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. 

It was possibly Eric’s ambulance work that kept him in the district while other young men were volunteering to fight in World War I. There was a graphic demonstration of the need for his services when he was called to a boiler explosion at a local sawmill in 1913. One man was killed and several others were seriously injured. Even though Eric did not join the armed forces, he was actively involved in training other men as stretcher bearers and first-aid providers to help wounded soldiers on their return from the front. 

Eric’s horse team worked in hauling timber from the local forests to the Gosford Wharf. The team was also a common sight hauling general freight to and from the railway yards. An important source of work was the Gosford quarry, which was operated by his brother-in-law Henry Parry. Possibly the biggest haulage job of the day was the transport of an 11-ton boiler from the railway yards to the quarry. Hauling 11-tons up the steep incline to the quarry was a huge challenge in the age when horse power was all that was available. Eric’s team managed the job from the railway yards to the intersection of Mann Street and Georgiana Terrace. The final stretch was up a steep hill along Georgiana Terrace to the quarry. Four teams of horses were combined for the final pull. In addition to Eric’s team, there was his brother Pat’s team and teams from the Scott brothers and Sid Pink. 

There is no doubt that Eric's most difficult ambulance job was on Christmas Eve 1937. He was called out to a traffic accident on the Pacific Highway not far from the Ward home in Dwyer Street. Eric arrived at the scene to discover that the injured were his two oldest children. Lena Jr who was 21 and Harold 19 had been walking home from Christmas Eve celebrations in Gosford when they were hit by a car. Lena was killed and Harold was seriously injured. Harold completely recovered, but Lena's death was a huge blow to the family.

Eric persevered with his horse teams well beyond the times when most moved to motor transport. He was arguably the last working teamster in the Gosford district and found it difficult to make a decent living. Things came to a head in the years after WWII and Eric struggled to pay his debts. He was finally forced to sell the land in Dwyer Street. There was enough left from the sale to purchase a small farm on the edge of Gosford, off Mann’s Road.

There was not enough money left to build a new house, so in the early 1950s the house was moved from Dwyer Street to the farm. It took several years to complete the whole process, and Eric, Lena and the younger children, who were still living at home, stayed with various relatives while the work was completed. 

Eric planted a lot of the farm to lemons in the belief that there was a promising market on the horizon. He was right in his belief that there would be good money to be made in lemons, but it would not be in his lifetime.

He retired his horse team but kept the horses, taking a sulky out most days to check on them. Several of is grandchildren have memories of going with Eric to check on the horses. These remain particularly cherished memories, only equalled by the memories of the warm embrace of Lena’s kitchen and the delicious treats that she created on her wood-fired stove.

Lena died in 1961 aged 66. Eric died in 1965 aged 74. Eric and Lena were survived by eight of their nine children and five of Eric’s siblings (Madeline Jr, Amy, Ephraim, Dolly and Bruce).