Three conscientious objectors appeared before the Coburg Court the same day as Rollo Heskett and Claude Cash. They were Harold Frederick Swanson, George Alfred Summers and Edward Hamilton Paul. This is their story. Harold F. Swanson The records of the National Archives of Australia show that Harold Swanson did not serve in World War One, […]
Tag: Anti-conscription
Exemption courts in Coburg
By Cheryl Griffin. On Wednesday 18 October 1916, just ten days before the first Conscription Referendum was held, 74 applications for exemption from military service were made before Police Magistrate Dr Frank Hobill Cole at Coburg Court. Thirty-four applications were granted, 31 were refused, five temporary or conditional exemptions were granted and four were adjourned. […]
Digger Smith and the conscription debate
By Cheryl Griffin. “E’s been once wounded, somewhere in the leg…” 6906 Private Lawrence Joseph Smith enlisted on 18 July 1918 and served with the 22nd Infantry Battalion. His parents were William Smith, an overseer, and Letitia Josephine McLoughlin. He’d been born in Coburg, lived with his parents and siblings in Coke Street (later Cope […]
Adela Pankhurst, the anti-conscription movement and Pentridge Prison
By Cheryl Griffin. Not long ago, my attention was drawn to several articles relating to a crowd of ‘no conscriptionists’ who had gathered outside the Women’s Prison at Pentridge to protest the imprisonment of Adela Pankhurst, daughter of English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and sister of Christabel and Sylvia. Estranged from her family, she had arrived […]