John Falkiner Maffey OAM and his wife Jenny visited the Singleton Historical Museum on Sunday afternoon and presented the Museum with two self-published books - one book detailing the Maffey family, the other book relates to the Falkiner, Blair and Rourke families.
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John's grandfather, Dr Reginald W H Maffey, came to Singleton in 1902 as Locum Tenens for Dr William Irwin. A year later, he succeeded to the practice of Dr Irwin.
In January 1904 Dr Reginald Maffey married Miss Lillie Fawcett, Matron of Singleton's Benevolent Society (hospital).
They had a son, Reginald Errol, known to all as Errol. In 1911, the Maffey family moved into their newly-built residence, Kanimbla, on the corner of John and Hunter Streets - now the site of a shopping centre.
The son, Errol Maffey, followed his father's footsteps and studied medicine.
After serving time at Sydney Hospital, he married Elizabeth Falkiner and returned to Singleton early 1930s to form a partnership with Dr Charles Gordon at the Maffey home of Kanimbla - the senior Maffeys had departed for a nine month voyage overseas.
When the senior Maffeys returned, they built Singleton's first brick veneer home, Capri, on the corner of Hunter and Bourke Streets.
In June 1940, Dr Errol Maffey enlisted with the 8th Division and by December 1941 he had been promoted to the rank of Major.
In July 1942 Major Errol Maffey was reported missing. He spent the remainder of the war years as a Prisoner of War under the Japanese in Borneo and soon after was liberated from the Japanese camp in 1945, he returned to Australia to regain his health.
The following year, when his health had improved, the partnership with Dr Charles Gordon was dissolved and Dr Errol Maffey began practising in Sydney.
Dr and Mrs Errol Maffey had one son, John Falkiner Maffey, who visited the Singleton History Museum on Sunday afternoon.
"Our Sunday visitor, John Maffey, spent much of his childhood in the Singleton district. He enjoyed chatting about his childhood days and the many identities he could remember," said Singleton Historical Museum President Peggy Moore.
"There was a tone of disgust that his early childhood home, Kanimbla, had been secretly bulldozed in the early hours of November 1980 by the developer of the shopping centre."
John and Jenny had visited Singleton in the 1990s to donate medical equipment that had belonged to his father and grandfather. "He was delighted to see the equipment displayed," Peggy added.
"We asked why he didn't follow the family's tradition of medicine as his great grandfather had also been a doctor.
"His answer was that The Singleton Hospital did not have an Accident and Emergency Department in those early years.
"Therefor accident cases were brought to the back of his home Kanimbla. Where he played in a corner of the yard. He saw so many mangled bodies that he had no desire to pursue medicine as a career."