Chapter 6.6a
Sydney Wansey family 1865 & 1910
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| Sydney Mosman Berkeley Wansey |
The Berkeleys died in the mid 30s and left half their estate to Sydney and half to a spinster niece. The Herald was to go wholly to Sydney on the death of the niece. Sydney was extremely frustrated that he never got control of the paper in his lifetime because she outlived him.
While skiing in Switzerland Sydney met a striking Dutch woman, Frances Antoinette Octavia Koek de Leur. In 1938 they married on Sumatra, Indonesia, where her parents were living. The following year they had one child, Michael.
At the outbreak of WW2 Sydney enlisted with the 8th Division. He was captured by the Japanese in Singapore and sent to work on the notorious Burma rail railway. His mother, Ida, died in August 1945 two days after Hiroshima was bombed, and didn’t live to see her youngest son return to Australia.
After four years as a prisoner of war, Sydney came back a changed man. Anyone who disagreed with his opinions was a fool, and his young child was a fool. His mother and father lived totally for one another and shunted Michael from one boarding school to the next.
Frustrated at his lack of control of the Herald, in 1948 Sydney left Australia with Frances to live off his dividends in Bermuda. Every week a barrow load of Newcastle Heralds arrived in Bermuda. He read them meticulously and then fired off letters to Australia
In 1960 John Fairfax Limited bought out the 45% minority shareholders in the Newcastle Herald and asked Sydney Wansey to return from Bermuda to become chairman, which he did. Sydney rose to became chairman of directors of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate Pty. Ltd., publishers of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Newcastle Sun. He was also a director of the Newcastle Broadcasting and Television Corporation Ltd. (NBN 3) and a director of Australian United Press Ltd. He died at Canberra on 20 May 1970 and was survived by his wife and son Michael.
Sydney left an estate valued at $2.75m to his wife Frances, including his part share of the Newcastle Herald.
Michael Berkley Wansley 1939-2018
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| Michael Berkley Wansey |
When Michael’s father, Sydney died in 1970 he left his share of the paper to his mother and then to him on her death. The Berkeley’s niece died in 1977 so his mother finally had total control of the newspaper.
Michael could see his mother was enjoying the power but he couldn’t. One day he set up a momentous deal to buy her out. He borrowed the money to buy his inheritance from his mother for $2.2 million. For that $2.2 million he actually got $6.6 million worth of Newcastle Harold shares.
From that day Michael and his mother never spoke again.
Later John Fairfax Limited bought the shares and in return sold Michael a controlling interest in NBN Television for an extra $1.1 million. Michael got embroiled in an extraordinary tangled and bitter 18 months fight with the board and other main shareholders at NBN. In the end Wansey decided to walk away and in 1982 sold the shares to Kevin Parry for $8.3 million.
With that money Michael Wansey settled down to live a life as an eccentric millionaire. Michael dabbled in a range of things that interested him. He became a major shareholder in refurbishing of the fire damaged Manly Ferry “South Steyne” which is now a floating restaurant at Darling Harbour. He found and donated a WW2 Catalina seaplane to an aircraft museum in Texas.
He said that he had no worries with his flamboyant lifestyle as he would always have money to fall back on. Unhappily that was not to be as he lost everything in the 1987 stock market crash and he was driving coaches to make ends meet. Then he was director of the Australian Waterski Association and then he went to America in the 1990s and worked for an ad company in Texas.
“He started a driving school and was getting back on his feet when the global financial crisis hit and the business went downhill and he went through another divorce.” It was his third.
His eldest son Andrew paid for a one-way ticket to fly his father back to Australia in 2009 and even at 70 Michael was determined to keep working, and he drove airport transfers while living at Emu Plains
Andrew said his father was an enthusiastic and determined businessman who taught him “the importance of resilience. He went broke but managed to pick himself up and go again and rebuild his life,” Andrew said. “And it happened to him three times. He never gave up and I think that helps me to be resilient and look at different ways of doing things. To realise that if something chronically bad happens, it’s not the end of the world.”
Michael died from bowel cancer in 2018, leaving three children.
Next Chapter - 6.7 Harriet Mosman/Lady McIlraith 1843