Albert Barnett Facey

BIOGRAPHY

ContributorCommunity HistoryLast nameFaceyFirst nameAlbertAliasBertA.B. FaceyBiography

Member of the Perth Road Board from 1944 - 1947.

A.B. Facey was born in 1894 and grew up on the Kalgoorlie goldfields and in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. His father died before he was two and he was deserted by his mother soon afterwards. He was looked after by his grandmother until he was eight years old, when he went out to work.

His many jobs included droving, hammering spikes on the railway line from Merredin to Wickepin and boxing in a travelling troupe. He was in the Eleventh Battalion at the Gallipoli landing; after the war, he became a farmer under the Soldier Settlement Scheme but was forced off the land during the Depression. He joined the Perth tramways and was active in the Tramways Union.

He and his wife Evelyn acquired a home at Royal St., Tuart Hill in 1935. By 1946 after successfully raising chickens and producing eggs he left the Tramways to become a full-time poultry farmer. Albert Facey was elected to the Osborne Ward of the Perth Road Board winning by a wide margin in 1946.

A.B. Facey, who had no formal education, taught himself to read and write. He made the first notes on his life soon after World War I and filled notebooks with his accounts of his experiences. Finally, on his children’s encouragement, he submitted the handwritten manuscript to the Press. He died in 1982, nine months after A Fortunate Life had been published to wide acclaim. Albert Facey leaves a profound legacy to the Western Australian community.

Date of birth1894Place of birth / nationalityAustraliaDate of death1982

CONNECTIONS

Related organisationPerth Road BoardRelated collectionMilitary collectionANZAC collectionRelated information

Albert was a 20 year old labourer when he enlisted on 4 January 1915 to become part of the 11th Battalion. He fought during the Gallipoli Campaign, as did his two elder brothers who were killed during this time. He was wounded, and subsequently invalided back to
Australia on 31 October 1915.

After the war he spent much of his working life as a successful poultry and pig farmer in areas such as Tuart Hill and Wanneroo. He was active in public life, including serving on the Perth Road Board (now City of Stirling) from 1944-47.

At the age of 85 Albert wrote his autobiography, A Fortunate Life, where he writes much about his experience as a soldier during World War One. It was published in 1981 only a few months before he died. His book became a best-seller and won the NSW
Premier’s Literary Award. In the last months of his life, he became a national celebrity and was nominated for the Australian of the Year Award in 1981.