Aged 12 he won a scholarship to attend Gowerton School, but he left after 15 months in order to enter work.

[3] He married Scottish-born Sarah Edith Willmore at the Trinity Congregational Church, Christchurch Central City, on 11 October 1923.

In 1920, he got offered a position as organising secretary of the Canterbury Workers' Educational Association (WEA) on the condition that he abstained from political office.

[4] Through WEA classes he took a degree course at University of Canterbury and eventually earned a Master of Arts majoring in economics.

[4] In 1945, there was an undertaking to widen Burnside Road that connected the city with the aerodrome in Harewood and dedicate it as a memorial to fallen airmen.

This was interpreted as a testament to Manning's personal popularity which came to be regarded as above party politics despite a lifelong affiliation with Labour.

[7] He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1967 Queen's Birthday Honours, for public services, especially to education and local government.

[8] Manning stood for the Labour Party in the 1943 election in the Christchurch North electorate, but lost against Sidney Holland.