Colin Mingay celebrates his 100th birthday with his family including his wife of 78 years - Una

Colin and Una moved from Sydney to Armidale in February 2020 to live with their son Richard and his wife, Liz, who have lived here for 20 years.

After a fall, Una moved into Autumn Lodge Nursing Home, and Colin moved into an independent unit on the grounds to be near her. It is the first time they have lived apart in 78 years, but he visits her twice a day.

Una says she doesn't' know why their marriage has stayed so strong.

"I threatened to kick him out sometimes, but I didn't," she laughed.

"It's better the devil you know than the devil you don't."

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The couple enjoyed an active social life and played tennis, golf, and bridge together throughout their marriage after Colin retired in his early 40's from the publishing industry.

Colin played a very significant part in the development of his father's company - Mingay Publishing. He started work there in 1936 at the age of 15 and, apart from war service in signals, spent his entire working life in the company.

He started at the bottom and had to work hard, with no favours as the boss's son, to become sales director and assistant managing director in the 1950s. Colin had the analytical business mind to turn the dreams and demands of his father Oswald into practicality.

When Mingay Publishing advertised for a girl to work in the administrative department, 16-year-old Una successfully applied and was appointed to work with 17-year-old Colin.

"To come in at the boss's son's level, you had to have made an impression," Una said.

Colin said he noticed Una immediately because she stood out, and after a couple of years of discretely courting, his father discovered the relationship.

"Firstly, he said Una couldn't continue to work for us anymore, and secondly, he welcomed her to the family," Colin said.

The couple married on June 12, 1943, when Colin was on leave from Borneo. When he returned, they settled down in Sydney and spent a couple of years in Melbourne, where Colin worked in Mingay Publishing's Victorian office.

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In 1961 the UK Thomson publishing organisation bought the Mingay Publishing Company, and Colin and his father retired three years later.

Colin and Una pursued their common interests and also travelled overseas - mostly visiting countries with good golf courses.

"I've played at the Pebble Beach Golf Course in California about three times, and I also played nine holes at St Andrews Golf course in Scotland when we toured Europe," Colin said.

As well as always eating well and playing sport, both Colin and Una are non-smokers and have only ever been very light social drinkers.

"When I was nine years old, I went shopping with my mother, and in Manly, we had to step over a drunk lying on the pavement, and I remember thinking how stupid it was to do that to yourself," said Colin.

"My father said to me as a boy that he smoked a pipe, and it was up to me if I wanted to smoke, but I wasn't to go hiding in the bushes to do it, so that took the mystery out of that for me."

Their son Richard says Colin and Una were avid bridge players for many years up to the national level, which he believes contributed to their excellent mental health.

"There were other couples that didn't get on very well playing together," Una said.

"We decided that if we didn't combine properly, then we wouldn't make a go of it. And that's why we always enjoyed playing together, and we got on very well."

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