Alfred was the tenth child and sixth son of William and Sarah Manwaring and was born in Cranbrook Kent on 8th February 1846.

Alfred went to school in Cranbrook and when he was only eleven years old he travelled to Southampton with his family to board the barque "Anna Maria" to travel the 108 day journey to Australia.

When he arrived in Australia he travelled with his parents to Bungendore where according to the electoral rolls he was living at Halfway Creek.

Alfred presumabely finished his schooling at Bungendore Provisional School after which he would have gone to work with his older brothers on leased property that his father had acquired near Bungendore township when the family first arrived in the area.

Around the year 1874 when he was twenty eight years old he moved from the Bungendore district with the rest of the Manwaring family to travel to the Kyron area of New South Wales where the prospects of selecting land was quite good. The trip was made by Bullock Dray and would have been an arduous journey in these times.

When Alfred arrived in the district with his family he initially selected four portions of land totalling 160 acres. This land was situated south of his father's property "RoseHill" and adjoining his older brother George's land. Over the next couple of years he selected three additional portions and in 1876 his total land holdings were 482 acres.

In early December of 1876 Alfred became very sick and on the 12th December when his condition deteriorated sharply, Doctor Archdall from Cootamundra was called to RoseHill where he diagnosed Alfred's condition as Heat Apoplexy and Cerebritis (Stroke). Alfred never recovered and he died four days later on the 16th December 1876.

Alfred was buried two days later at the Church of England Cemetary, Jugiong. The ceremony was conducted by the family as there was no minister in the district at the time and his older brother George acted as undertaker.