Gwen McCurdy: A Remarkable Life!

Gwen McCurdy (nee Sherwell) was born on July 29, 1927 and passed on January 29, 2026. She was the youngest of fourteen children to Alfred and Hester Sherwell who selected land at Wilkur South.

The eldest child, Dolly, was born in 1902 and Gwen as the youngest came 25 years later. Jessie reached the good old age of 101 years. The family (then numbering 7) lived in Donald for a few years so the children could start school. Their father worked at the dairy at “Cameron’s Corner”.

The siblings lost their mum when Gwen was 11 years old and a few years later, their father died too, when she was aged 15.

Gwen worked at the Woollen Mills in Geelong where she met and married Joe McCurdy froom Kerang, who worked at International Harvester. They lived in Kerang and Lake Charm and had three boys and one girl.

Gwen loved to write poetry and the following is her take on the game of cricket, written when she was 85 years of age.

A Day at the Cricket
(A story using cricket terms, by Gwen McCurdy)

An Aussie cricketer with the initials LBW took a run over to England to see the Test Match in 2012.
He took a Maiden Over with him because he thought thought she was a good catch and she appealed to him.
Their seats were with the Balmy Army crowd where they met Two Offsiders from England.
Before the end of the innings the Third Man attacked LBW which ended the partnership as an injury occurred.
LBW went for a sixer when the third man hit him with a bouncer from the off side which sent LBW for a spinner.
It was a silly point because the third man already had a square leg and wasn’t able to make a run for it. He was caught at the boundary later.
It was a 20-20 match for the spectators for a while.
When the take over was ended, an appeal was made by LBW but the wicket keeper gave him his gloves for the next match and asked would he be back for the hat trick.
Although LBW’s luck was out this time, he would toss the coin and hope to win the Maiden over again.
Well the pitch wasn’t good. Shane Warne won the toss and he went to her rescue. They were given the Mexican Wave and the Balmy Army shouted, “How’s that!”