George Arthur Pell Snr, born in 1906 in Perth, Western Australia, was a non-practising Anglican, a Kalgoorlie gold miner and a WA amateur heavyweight boxing champion.
In 1936 he decided to go to Melbourne to watch the Melbourne Cup. Wotan won at 100 to 1. In 2019 in his prison Journal Geoge Pell Jnr described horse racing as “….. a blessing, part of God’s creation ……”
George Snr liked it so much in Victoria that he decided to stay.
In 1939 he married a devout working class Catholic named Margaret Lillian Burke. At the time that was considered a mixed marriage because of the difference in churches.
From 1953, when George Jnr was 12 years old, to 1975, George Snrand Margaret managed the Royal Oak Hotel in Ballarat and teenage George would work behind the bar with his brother David and sister Margaret. Google AI reports that, according to Pell’s biographer Tess Livingstone, “…… young George and his sister Margaret were expected to pitch in and help serve behind the bar during their school holidays once they became teenagers. (Livingstone) frames these early years as foundational to his character, noting that working the front bar of a local pub taught him how to rules-enforce, tolerate all types of people, and naturally converse with the general public. ” (Livingstone’s book is available at this link.)
Pope Francis appointed Pell to a new position to clean up Vatican finances because he saw an uncompromising mental toughness and tenacity in Pell.
A pub in Ballarat helped Pell learn to be like that.
AMDG
Geoff Fox, Melbourne Cup Day, 2026, Melbourne, Australia
