Geoff Manning

Geoffrey Haydon Manning (1926–2018) was an Australian author and historian, commonly known as Geoff Manning and cited as an author as Geoffrey H. Manning. He is known particularly for his books on South Australian placenames; ''Manning's Place Names of South Australia'' (1990) is particularly well-known and available online at the State Library of South Australia website. The final illustrated edition of this work was ''The Place Names Of Our Land: A South Australian Anthology'' (2009).

Early life

Manning was born in Waikerie, South Australia, a son of carpenter Richard Baker Manning (1896–1936) and his wife Grace Maud Manning, née Hein (1901–).

Career and other life interests

He was employed by the Savings Bank of South Australia until his retirement in 1982.

He greatly admired Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley, and saw himself as espousing generally left-wing views.

Local history

After retirement from the bank, Manning devoted himself fully to writing on local history. His works on South Australian placenames contain much information supplemental to, and correcting, the much earlier ''Nomenclature of South Australia'' (1908) by Rodney Cockburn (1877–1932) and ''What's in a Name'', a revised edition by his journalist son Stewart Cockburn (1921–2009).
John Hill, then Minister for the Environment, launched the online version of ''Manning’s Data Base of South Australian History'' in September 2005 at the State Library of South Australia.

His large collection of significant articles from South Australian newspapers has been digitised by the State Library of South Australia as ''The Manning Index of South Australian History''.His 1081-page work, ''A Compendium of the Place Names of South Australia'', is accessible via an indexed alphabetical list from the SLSA'
 ''Manning index''
website. it was also available as
 complete downloadable document
from th
 website
maintained by Haydon R. Manning.

In 1997 he released ''The Grange Golf Club: A History of the First 70 Years, 1926–1996'' about The Grange Golf Club of Adelaide.

Family, death and legacy

Manning married Gwen in September 1956; it was her second marriage and he thus became step-father to two daughters. Haydon R. Manning, political scientist of Flinders University, is his son.

Manning died in September 2018, leaving a legacy of invaluable historical work on South Australian history.

References

Notes

Select bibliography

*Geoffrey H. Manning ''Hope Farm, Cradle of the McLaren Vale Wine Industry'' (1980)
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''Whisky Makes You Well'' (1983)
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''Hope Farm Chronicle'' (1984)
*Geoffrey H. Manning (ed.) ''Memoirs of Thomas Frost, 1825–1910'' (1985)
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''The Tragic Shore'' (1988)
*Geoffrey H. Manning and Haydon R. Manning ''Worth Fighting For'' (1989) on bank employees' unionism
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''Manning's Place Names of South Australia'', Adelaide, 1990
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''50 Years of Singing; A History of the Adelaide Harmony Choir'' (1996)
*Geoffrey H. Manning and Alison Painter ''The Grange Golf Club; A history of the First 70 Years, 1926–1996'' (1997)
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''A Colonial Experience, 1838–1910'' (2001) 3 Volumes set
*Geoffrey H. Manning
Manning’s Place Names of South Australia From Aaron Creek to Zion Hill
' (c.2006 ) "Includes facsimile of Rodney Cockburn's 'Nomenclature of South Australia' 908" (CD-ROM)
*Geoffrey H. Manning ''The Place Names Of Our Land: A South Australian Anthology'' (2009)

External links

* Geoff Manning's published histories, links to place names and his subject catalogue of 100 years of South Australian newspapers (1836–1936)
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Geoff
1926 births
2018 deaths
Australian historians
People from South Australia