Stanley Albert Henry Hague was born on the 11th December 1937 in Albury. He was the third child of Stanley Arthur and Sarah Selina Hague and was one of eight children, who was dearly loved all of his siblings, Valerie, Cynthia, Chrystal, Coral, Mary, Richard and Deirdre. Stanley completed his Primary schooling in Rand before attending Albury High School as a boarder. He left school at the age of 15 and went home to work on the family farm “Rockingham”. He was always destined to be a farmer! Apart from sport, dances were a popular social event when Stanley was young, and it was at one of these dances that he met the love of his life, Julie Webb. They were married on 31st March 1959 at St Mathews Anglican Church in Albury and continued their love of dancing for all of their life together.
Stanley was often heard telling the tale of how he had to sell his favourite horse ‘Harcourt’, which he trained to be a top line dressage horse, to pay for the wedding. He and Julie were married for 54 years, so although he “really” loved that horse, he obviously loved Julie more! Stanley and Julie went on to have three sons, Phillip, Kelvin and Ross, who shared their great love of the land and passion for farming. With the three boys all wanting to be farmers, and land prices in the Rand area becoming very expensive, Stanley and Julie made the huge decision to sell their 1000 acre property and move North where land was more affordable.
Stanley, Julie and the boys moved from Rand to Tullibigeal in 1978. They purchased the property “Millview”, which is still in the Hague family today, along with 8 other properties covering 144 thousand acres, owned and run by Phillip and Judy, Kelvin and Linda, Ross and Rebecca and Stanley and Julie’s 13 grandchildren and their spouse’s. After purchasing ‘Millview’ Stanley and Phillip had come up to fallow country in the spring of 1977. One night while on the tractor Stanley commented that he could see a farmer burning a huge amount of stumps to the West. On returning 6 weeks later to work the fallows again Stanley thought he could see the same fires burning. He later found out that the burning stumps were the lights of Lake Cargelligo, much to his amusement.
Another great passion of Stanley’s, without a doubt, were his beloved Santa Gertrudis cattle. Together with his brother Richard, they established the Rockingham Santa Gertrudis Stud in 1969, named after the property they grew up on. Stanley was immensely proud of the studs continued success, which includes winning Reserve Champion Female at the Sydney Royal Show twice. Selling bulls to all states of Australia up to $20,000 and now holding a successful on property sale for the past 5 years. Stanley loved his Santa cattle and he also cherished the people he befriended while travelling throughout Australia and the world. Julie was usually at Stan’s side at cattle events, however on one occasion he made the late decision to attend the Sydney Royal Show without Julie.
On arriving in Sydney he realised that he had no accommodation. In desperation he conned his great mate Geoff Combs, Santa classifier, to share his queen size bed at the Novotel with Geoff and his 6 year old son. Thank goodness Nan took care of him most of the time! Apart from the family and the farm, made huge contributions to sport and the community.
His illustrious football care began with the Rand Football Club in the Hume League where he played over 400 games without winning a premiership. Upon moving to Tullibigeal he played with the Four Corners Football Club. Stanley was appointed playing captain coach in 1980 at the age of 43. He found immediate success winning the Northern Riverina Football League premiership with a six point victory over the Lake Tigers, a game which he played with his two elder son Phillip and Kelvin. While watching a video replay of the grand final game with the team, his teammate Bob Blacker made the comment “even the Fossil got a kick”. The nickname “fossil” stuck and Stanley went on to be known affectionately by that name for the remainder of his life. When his first grandchild was born, he was asked if he’d like to be grandad or pa, but he was adamant that he be called Fossil. While the kids loved it, it did raise a few eyebrows at times. I remember calling him Fossil at a field day once, only to be called a “little brat” by a stranger who overheard me, for being disrespectful! Summertime for Stanley meant cricket, where at the age of 17 he was selected for a Riverina Representative side.
Stanley scored several centuries for Rand as a opening Batsman. In the 70’s he started a new cricket team for younger players called the Rand Colts. The worthiness of new additions to The Hague family are often judged by their cricketing knowledge or ability. After retiring from playing sport Stanley became a leading administrator of local sporting clubs. He was awarded life membership of the Rand Football Club after his 25 years involvement. In 1989, Stanley took on the position of President of the Northern Riverina Football League, a position he held for 17 years and was later awarded life membership. He also received a 25 year service award from AFL NSW.
Stanley coached the Lake Tigers in 1987, was president for 4 years and was awarded life membership in 2012. If Stanley Hague had a weakness it was going to a community meeting and coming home with another executive position, much to Julie’s disgust. He was president of the Rand Hall for 15 years, representative and warden of the Anglican Church for over 30 years and Inaugural Chairman of the Lower Lachlan Community Services, where he served the organisation for 10 years. Along with Gus, Welsy and AD he was on the executive of the Lake Cargelligo ‘Wife Swappers’ on a Thursday night. From the street sweeper to the Queen, Stanley could communicate with anyone. By the end of the conversation, he had usually found out what side of the bed they sleep on, and he was disappointed if he didn’t know at least one person that they did! Linda remembers Stanley telling her over 30 years ago that he had three great loves in his life, “his Family, his farm and his football”. A few weeks ago, while he was in hospital and he’d had lots of visitors, he simply said to Kelvin “Friends, Family, Footy, Farm”.
He never wavered from his love and passion for these things, and he lived his life accordingly. There’s no doubt that Stanley had a significant and positive impact on many, many lives and all who were lucky enough to have known him returned the love he felt for his family and friends. There is no doubt Stanley Hague could not have achieved anymore throughout his wonderful life. We will not let our or future generations forget what you have done for us.