Albert Facey

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Albert Facey (born 1894 in Maidstone, Victoria; died February 1982) is an Australian writer, whose main work was his autobiography A Fortunate Life, now considered a classic in Australian literature.

His father died on the Goldfields of Western Australia in 1896 of typhoid fever and Albert's mother left her children to the care of their grandmother shortly afterwards. Most of his childhood was spent in the Wickepin area.

He started working at the age of eight and had little education. He was badly injured at Gallipoli during the First World War. While recuperating he met his future wife Evelyn Gibson and they were married in Bunbury in August 1916. The Faceys lived in East Perth before returning to Wickepin six years later with their children, where they lived until 1934.

After teaching himself to read and write, Facey began making notes on his life and at the urging of his children eventually had the notes printed in the book. It was published just nine months before his death in February 1982.[1]

His home in Wickepin is a tourist attraction today, while a government building on Forrest Place in the state capital, Perth, is named in his honour and is home to Perth's main travel bureau and visitor centre. A public library in Mundaring and a hotel in Narrogin also bear his name.