Albert George YARDLEY was born in Islington, London in June 1886. The son of a print cutter. In 1911 the occupation of his father (Charles Yardley) has the additional information “Print Cutter for Wallpaper Making Pattern”
When Albert came to New Zealand in 1906 he came as a farmer. Presumably this made it easier to get a passage, as it is hard to see how he was one. However until 1911 he worked as a ploughman at Te Aroha West, and married Ellen GRATTAN there in 1908.
Around 1911/1912, he branched out into journalism. As can be seen in the Te Aroha News of September 27th 1915. He is being transferred within the publishing company to The Pukekohe Times (having been working for the Te Aroha News for the past 4 years).
He was only in Pukekohe a year and was then transferred to Matamata where, as also reported in the Te Aroha News the first copy of the Matamata Record was published in October 1916.
He and the business were one of the main sufferers of the 1919 fire. At that time he was living in the house on the site, and the offices of the Matamata Record were in one of the shops in front.
The Matamata Record took over the Library portion of the Town Hall as it’s temporary premises and the printing was done in Morrinsville.
On a plan, A.G. Yardley and W.C. Cargill are noted as owning Section I block V. The certificate of title elaborates that this was the Cargill Publishing Company. According to Neville Gouk, the premises of the Record were there, and demolished when Ken Gouk built Gouk’s service station. (Now -2025 - Challenge).
In 1924 a new editor (T. E. McMillan) was appointed and Alfred Yardley moved to Morrinsville where he lived until his death in 1959.
