On that Sunday in August 1918 we were all inside the house, which had a kind of tension about it. Dad had a roaring fire going in the fireplace; the Fountain was bubbling away while the kettle and a couple of other pots of water were simmering on the hobs.
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Mother was still in bed but we were not allowed into the bedroom. Dad told us she wasn't sick, just a little "off colour".
Mrs Spurway was staying with us. Dad had brought her with a brown bag in the sulky the day before. Now she was in the bedroom with Mum and sister Irene was in there too. We could hear their muffled voices and a bit of moaning. Irene kept coming out to the fire to get dippers of hot water and take them into the bedroom.
We kids were talking to Dad but he just didn't seem to be listening or taking much notice of us. Obviously his mind was in there with the women in the bedroom.
Suddenly there was a funny crying noise in the bedroom.
"What was that?" we wanted to know.
Dad was no doubt pretty tense but in his usual calm manner told us:
"It was a little bird."
What on earth a little bird was doing in the bedroom he did not explain but a while later Irene came out and said:
"You can all come in now."
We trooped into the bedroom behind Dad and there was Mother, lying up in bed with a smile all over her face and in her arms 'the little bird' - our newest baby brother.
"You can all give him a kiss," Mum told us so in turns we gave the shiny pink forehead a nervous peck.
So Colin Hubert Mahoney was welcomed into the world. A world that in his lifetime was destined to see mankind achieve more intelligent advancement than in the whole of its previous history.
There must have been something prophetic about our father's cryptic reference to the newcomer as a little bird. For the elements of flight became Colin's lifetime passion and profession. As a small boy he was to see the famous Australian aviator Bert Hinkler land his little single-engined plane at Goulburn racecourse on a barnstorming visit to celebrate his epic England to-Australia solo flight.
When barely out of his teens he joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an AC 1 (Aircraftsman Class One, the lowest rank in the service). Within weeks after the outbreak of World War II he was in the first batch of servicemen to sail from Australia to England where he served with RAF No 10 Squadron on Sunderland bombers at Pembroke Dock.
He went through the Battle of Britain at Portsmouth and returned to Australia on Catalina bombers in the South Pacific war.
Colin made the RAAF his lifetime career and in 1976 after numerous postings at home and abroad, retired as Air Commodore after what his peers described as "a remarkable career in aviation engineering".