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Norrie was born on 24 March 1920 to Florence and Matthew Clancy. He was born at Katanning, Western Australia.

CHILDHOOD

Norrie spent his childhood with his parents and sister Mary on their family property near Dumbleyoung in the South Eastern part of Western Australia.

He went to school at the Bibiking public school. It was a small one teacher school with about fifteen students located about two and a half miles north of the family property. When Norrie was young he used to walk to school joining up with the other neighbourhood children as he passed their farms. When he was older Norrie rode a horse to school. He attended this school from six to fifteen years of age.

As a child Norrie had farm chores such as bringing in the cow and helping with the milking, feeding the pigs and chooks and collecting eggs.

When Norrie was fifteen years old his Father was knocked down by a horse and broke a number of ribs. Norrie immediately left Bibiking school to run the farm. He arranged for his cousin Bernie Kelly to come and live with them and help him. Bernie was about seventeen years old.

At this time Norrie's Mother Florence was very sick in hospital in Katanning.

Bernie and Norrie proceeded to put in the wheat crop. Following this they helped with the shearing of the sheep and later harvested the wheat crop. Florence's health deteriorated further and she was moved to a Perth hospital. Norrie's Father Matthew decided to sell the farm and move to Perth to be near her. Also he was no longer able to operate the farm because of his age and poor health.

THE PERTH YEARS

While Matthew was visiting Florence in the Perth hospital she died. Soon after the farm was sold and Matthew and his two children Norrie and Mary moved to Perth. This was a very traumatic time for them with the loss of their wife and Mother, the selling of the farm and the many other associated changes in their lives.

Initially they lived in a boarding house belonging to Norrie's cousins Mick and Gwen Clancy in Hay Street, East Perth. Matthew proceeded to buy a house for them to live in. Its address was 38 Subiaco Rd, Subiaco. They lived there for a year or two but it was not very satisfactory so he bought another home at 323 Oxford St, Leederville. They moved here in 1937.

In Perth Norrie got his drivers licence and got work at a workshop as a mechanics assistant. He was too old to gain an apprenticeship so he did the Motor Mechanics course at night in his own time. He successfully completed this course and then went to the Western Australian Technical College at night where he attained his Leaving Certificate. He then commenced the Engineering Diploma course. While he was doing this course the Second World War began.

THE ARMY YEARS

After the outbreak of war in 1939 all the able bodied men were required to do three months of basic training. After these three months Norrie was asked to stay on as an instructor in mechanical maintenance and servicing. He agreed and was immediately promoted to Corporal. After working as a trainer for a while he was put in charge of a small army workshop and promoted to Sargeant. Norrie then went to Officer's training after which he was put in charge of a larger army workshop managing about fifty people. A year later he was promoted to Captain. At twenty three years of age he was one of the youngest Captains in the army.

The Company he was with moved to North/West Western Australia where Norrie managed the vehicle workshops in the area. These workshops maintained all the army transport vehicles such as trucks and jeeps. While based in marble bar he got yellow fever and was repatriated back to Perth. Later he was moved to Queensland in charge of the 2/33 Army Workshop.

Soon after the Japanese surrendered to General McCarther Norrie was sent to Singapore as a member of an army contingent whose role was to locate and repatriate the Australian prisoners of war. He travelled to Singapore on a ship called the Duntroon. During a party on board the ship in Darwin harbour Norrie met Ursula Caesar who was a member of the Australian Army Medical Women's Unit. They sailed on to Singapore and were actually sitting in Singapore harbour waiting to berth when the surrender was signed in Singapore for South/East Asia.

When they first landed the only vehicles that the contingent had were the ones they could salvage. Hence Norrie's first job was to find vehicles and get them mobile. Many had been sabotaged by the Japanese. Later the supply ship, The River Murrimbigee arrived with many vehicles. Then Norrie's Units job was the repair and maintenance of these vehicles.

In Singapore he lived in quarters in Changi jail. Ursula lived at St Josephs school and worked at the hospital. During this time they went out together whenever they could. They soon fell in love.

They were in Singapore for about three months. By this time all the Australian prisoners of war had been repatriated back to Australia. Both Norrie and Ursula returned to Australia on a British ship called, The Cheshire. The ship sailed via Fremantle where Ursula met Norrie's dad. The ship then came round the bottom of Australia with Norrie disembarking in Melbourne. He went to Puckapunyal to arrange the repatriation of his troops. Ursula sailed on home to Sydney.

When Norrie was able to get a weeks leave he went to Sydney and asked Ursula to marry him. They got engaged. Soon after he returned to Western Australia where he was posted to another army unit.

As the war was now over Norrie wanted to leave the army. He wished to purchase and operate his own motor business. So he began looking for a small reasonably priced integrated motor business. These were rare in Perth so be began looking in the country areas around Perth. He found a business he liked in Goomalling which sold cars, trucks, farm machinery and parts. It was a typical country town garage selling petrol from bowsers on the footpath and with a small workshop. Once he had arranged to buy this business he was able to get a discharge from the army.

MARRIAGE AND THE GOOMALLING YEARS

Once he was established in the business Norrie went to Sydney and Married Ursula. They were married in The Sacred Heart Church, Mosman on 24 August 1946. For the first year of their married life they lived in the Hotel in Goomalling.

In the early years Norrie's small business, which was called Clancy Motors, employed four or five people. During the first year he secured the dual Austin-Dodge franchise and also the Case tractor franchise. They sold a great range of vehicles including a lot of big wheat trucks. These years were tight financially because of the need to finance loans and to continually put money back into the development of the business. Over the first ten years Norrie built up the Garage into a thriving and prosperous business employing ten to twelve people.

In 1955 Norrie was chosen as a dealer representative to attend the 50th Anniversary of The Austin Motor Company in England. The trip commenced in about July and lasted for approximately six weeks. This was only two months after Maureen's birth which made it very difficult for the family because of her serious illness and operation. Norrie found it a very interesting and worthwhile trip giving him the opportunity to study the manufacture and marketing of vehicles in England and the chance to gain world opinions on the motor trade at large.

Norrie and Ursula had agreed to eventually move to New South Wales to live but not while Norrie's father, Matthew was still alive. He died when Josephine was a baby. It was a number of years after this before they were able to move.

THE MOVE TO NEW SOUTH WALES

On returning from England Norrie began to work seriously towards moving to New South Wales. He arranged the sale of the business but deferred this and the move till after Maureen's second operation which she was scheduled to have at twelve months of age.

Norrie and Ursula and their five children, Michael, Christine, Josephine, John and Maureen packed up and departed for New South Wales in May 1956. They travelled on a ship called the Duntroon. This was the same ship on which Norrie and Ursula had met when travelling to Singapore.

For the first few months after arriving in New South Wales they stayed with Ursula's mother in Mosman. While staying there they made a trip to Esk in Queensland to visit Ursula's sister Helen and her family.

Norrie spent most of the rest of this period looking for a business. After visiting several centres Norrie settled on a business in Bathurst. On 23 July 1956 Norrie purchased the business known as Horan's Garage in Durham Street from Mr Tal Wells. He took over the Nuffield franchise with this business. The Nuffield range included the Morris and Wolseley cars.

Norrie chose this business because it was the type he wanted but was run down and cheap. He needed a business that was cheap to purchase because a lot of his money was still tied up in the west.

 
CLANCY MOTORS BATHURST - THE FIRST TEN YEARS

The first two years in Bathurst were the hardest years for Norrie and his family. The main cause of this was the fact that Nuffield was going down hill and no amount of work by the dealers could change this. Norrie worked very hard for very long hours but with little to show for it.

In 1958 the local Bathurst Ford dealer, Aurbins shut down and sold everything including the site. Ford approached a number of people including Norrie to take on the Ford franchise. Norrie initially said no because of the large financial commitment required. However soon after a suitable site in Howick street came on the market at a reasonable price. Ford grudgingly agreed to issuing the franchise to Norrie on the condition that he upgrade the building on the site. Clancy Motors was appointed as the Bathurst Ford dealer on 1 August 1958.

Over the next twelve months modern new premises were built on the site Norrie had purchased in Howick street. They were opened on 16 September 1959.

1960/61 were disaster years for the business. The first Falcon was released during this period. It was not a success. Also there was a severe credit squeeze across Australia. Many car dealers went broke. Norrie managed to just keep the business afloat by negotiating to get the final money out of the Western Australian business, laying off staff and cutting back on stock.

During the first eight years at the Howick St site Clancy Motors steadily grew into a very good business. An adjoining cottage on the southern side was purchased and replaced with a used car lot. The workshop was extended and modernized and the Ford tractor and farm implements franchise was taken on. By 1966 the Clancy Motors had a staff of 28.

THE FAMILY

On arriving in Bathurst in 1956 Norrie bought the family a home at 191 Hope St. It was a four bedroom double brick home with two of these bedrooms being a small fibro extension to the original house. Initially the three girls shared the large bedroom. Later an additional bedroom was added to the back which became Christine's while the two younger girls shared a bedroom.

With the birth of Terence in 1959 Norrie and Ursula had six children. Norrie led a busy life with his large family, demanding business and work for the church. On Saturdays Norrie often went down to Clancy Motors for a while. He also liked to play in the Saturday golf competition when he had the time. The rest of the weekend was normally spent with the family. Common family activities included gardening, playing, attending Sunday Mass, picnics and visiting friends.

Every January Norrie would take his annual holidays and take the family to one of the Sydney beaches for a few weeks. The children always loved these holidays.

CLANCY MOTORS BATHURST - THE 1970'S

During the 1970's Clancy Motors continued to grow causing further problems with shortage of space. In order to cope with overflow from the Howick St lot Norrie purchased a block of land in William St near the Cathedral and established another used car lot. However it had no service facilities so in 1974 he purchased the Ampol service station on the corner of George and Piper St and he moved much of the used car operation to this new site which provided service facilities in addition to a large display area.

Soon after this the workshop at the Howick St site was further extended with access to a new council carpark in the centre of the city block. In 1975 Clancy Motors purchased the large site adjoining their block on the northern side and a further car display area was gradually developed there.

Clancy Motors had grown into one of the larger businesses in Bathurst and by the late 1970's had a staff of 50 people. Norrie had very high personal and business ethics and encouraged his staff to operate the business to his high standards. The people at Clancy Motors had a reputation throughout the district for good honest service.

Norrie's Ford franchise held one of the highest market shares of any Ford dealer. During this period Norrie won a trip to Hong Kong from the Ford Motor Company for high market share. Ford flew them and the other chosen Ford dealers there on a specially chartered jumbo and provided a holiday where everything was first class. Norrie and Ursula had a wonderful trip with a level of luxury and a side of life they had never experienced before.

During the 1970's Norrie became a dealer representative on the State and National dealer councils. After a period of representation he was appointed chairman of the State Dealer Council and then later vice-chairman and acting chairman of the National Dealer Council. This was a tremendous experience and the pinnacle of his business life. In these roles he met and dealt with many national and international business leaders including Henry Ford, Edsel Ford and Lee Iacocca.

During 1979 Norrie experienced sharp chest pains on a number of occasions. The cause of the pain was found to be pericardiitis. The medical tests also discovered that he had a faulty heart valve. These heart problems caused Norrie to worry about what would happen to Clancy Motors if he died or was no longer able to manage it. Norrie discussed the options with the family and it was agreed that it was best to sell the business at this time. Norrie began talking to the Ford Motor Co. to obtain assistance in finding a buyer. On 1 September 1980 David Dickinson officially purchased and took over management of Clancy Motors.

NEW BUSINESS INTERESTS

Norrie was now 60 years old. His involvement in Clancy Motors continued for another two years as he was responsible for collecting the debts from his time as managing director. During this period he also did a Real Estate course at the technical college. Norrie and Ursula also took advantage of the reduced responsibilities to take a holiday in Europe.

In the period following the sale of Clancy Motors, Norrie looked in detail at the bodies offering financial services and investment advise as he now had considerable money to invest. These investigations stimulated his interest in this line of work and highlighted the shortage of such services in Bathurst. This led him to David Bleakley who owned and operated a financial services business in Sydney. After some discussion Norrie became Bleakley's representative in Bathurst and opened an office in the office building he owned in Howick St adjacent to Myers.

 
Norrie's new enterprise was initially envisaged as a part time job but within nine months Norrie was run off his feet with work. So he employed Bruce Midgley as a second financial adviser. Bruce was formally a bank manager. The business was quite successful with fluctuations over the years coinciding with fluctuations in the economy and the financial world. In the late 1980's Norrie allowed more and more of the work to pass to Bruce until in January 1991 Bruce took over the business.

SERVICES TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Norrie gave outstanding service to the Catholic Church throughout his adult life. While living in Goomalling he was involved with the parish council and provided financial advice to the Benedictine Community in Western Australia. The Benedictines operated the New Norcia Diocese.

In Bathurst Norrie contributed to church activities in many ways. Some of these were;

-Chairman of the Parish Council of the Assumption Church.

-Energetic member of the St Vincent's Hospital board for more than two decades.

-Chairman of The St Vincent's Hospital Board.

-Chairman of the committee which directed the construction of the new St Philomena's School.

-Foundation member and then chairman of the Diocesan Administration and Finance Committee.

-Member of the board of the Diocesan Loan Fund.

-Member of the board of the Diocesan Catholic Girls High School.

He also was a close personal adviser to Bishop Thomas on financial and administrative matters. Later Norrie also assisted his successor, Bishop Dougherty with financial matters.

In 1983 Norrie received a Papal Knighthood. The Knighthood received was the order of St Sylvester which is an honour that was instituted by Pope Gregory XVI in 1841. It is awarded for distinguished service to the Catholic Church and is one of the highest honours accorded to lay people by the Catholic Church. Bishop Thomas conferred the honour on behalf of Pope John Paul II. The Bishop said that Norrie received the award for his outstanding service to the church over many decades. He further said;

Bishop Thomas presents Norrie Clancy with the Papal Knighthood in the Order of Saint Silvester 10th September 1983.
"This Knighthood also pays tribute to his outstanding personal qualities. His integrity, honesty and sense of commitment are a powerful example to all, especially in the business world that Catholics can win respect when they abide by the principles and morality of their faith.

Finally, I acknowledge the excellent witness which he and his good wife Ursula have given as parents in the community."

This Family History written collated and prepared by my borther and Norrie's son Donovan Clancy. It is take from his publication :

The Family History of
Norrie and Ursula Clancy
NORRIE MICHAEL CLANCY