William Harris of Eatons Hill turned 100 this year and has just been inducted into the Carinity 100 Club, a recognition programme for centenarians that began in 2014. He served in the Royal Marines during World War II, spent 60 years as an engineer and has called Brisbane home for half a century.
William was born in Croydon, England in 1926, left school at 13 and enlisted in the Royal Marines as a teenager. He served for almost three years, including in Asia in the closing stages of the war, and carries the kind of quiet, matter-of-fact memory of that period that speaks to someone who lived it rather than studied it.
“The war in Europe was finished, and millions of troops were going home,” he said. “We got as far as India when they decided to send some of us, a signal company, to Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka.”
A life that kept moving
After the war, William returned to Croydon and built a 60-year career as an engineer. He married his wife Stephanie and the couple moved to New Zealand in the 1950s, spending two decades across Christchurch and Auckland before making the decision to come to Australia. The reason, as William tells it, was straightforward.
“I used to employ an Australian and he used to say how marvellous Brisbane was, so we packed up and came here,” he said.
They arrived about 50 years ago, settled first in a caravan park at Aspley, then a flat in Nundah, before William bought a house. He has been a Queenslander ever since.
William and Stephanie were married for 66 years. He is now surrounded by two daughters, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Walking one of his granddaughters down the aisle at her wedding is, he says, one of the highlights of his life.
He only took up golf at 60 — and played until he was 90
Sport has been a constant thread across William’s life, through cycling, lawn bowls and a golf career that began unusually late and lasted unusually long.
“I never held a golf club until I was 60, and that was only in the sands that were near the beach,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed my retired life.”
He played golf until the age of 90, a 30-year run that began on a beach and ended nine decades deep into a life well used.
These days, William keeps himself sharp with his smartphone and iPad, embracing technology that many people half his age find challenging. He also maintains strong opinions about food: potatoes, white beans and tomatoes are welcome at his table. Carrots, lettuce and green vegetables are not.
A club with some remarkable company
The Carinity 100 Club was established in 2014, with Harry Loader as its first inductee. In March 2026, Brisbane resident June Whiting became the 100th member of the club, making William among its most recently welcomed members.
Carinity Home Care‘s Vanessa Lisle presented William with his induction recognition.
William appreciates the support he receives through Carinity Home Care as a Carinity Clean service user, which provides in-home cleaning and domestic assistance to help older Australians stay independent in their own homes.
Carinity has been delivering community services as an outreach of Queensland Baptists since 1949, supporting older Australians in their homes and in residential aged care communities across Queensland, alongside work with families, young people and people with disability.
For more information about Carinity’s services, click here or call 1300 112 640.
Published 8-May-2026
