Absent Without Leave by Paul Livingston

Author:Paul Livingston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS027000, book
ISBN: 9781743433461
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2013-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

10

Gaps in the ranks

‘I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.’

Thomas Hardy

For those Australian soldiers who prolonged their leave, the most obvious handicap was the immediate suspension of payments. Many families were dependent on the soldier’s pay to supplement their income. For some it was their only source of revenue. Hundreds of other men were wrongly reported AWL, leaving wives and children with no source of income, and not a small amount of shame. Such was the situation for Pte Fullarton, a married soldier with a clean record after thirteen years of military service in both wars when he arrived home in Melbourne for two days’ leave. Mrs Fullarton did not appear happy to see him. When she curtly inquired about life in the training camps in Queensland, Pte Fullarton said it was going OK. Mrs Fullarton was not OK with his OK, calling him a liar and suggesting he head straight back to the arms of the woman he had been seeing during his two-month AWL. The poor woman had been stewing for some time. The situation had come to a head when their daughter had gone to the post office to pick up his allotment as usual, only to be advised there would be no money for Mrs Fullarton. Without money and assuming she was also without a husband, Mrs Fullarton had suffered a heart attack. The private was horrified—he had no explanation for the cessation of his pay. When he tried to plead his case, his wife presented her trump card. She produced an official statement from the accounts department charging that her man had been AWL, and ordered her husband out of the house. With that, Pte Fullarton left the premises, but not to return to any mystery woman. He went straight to the accounts department and made his complaint heard. It was soon established that Fullarton had never left his unit. He returned home, but not without arming himself with an official memo from the office proving his innocence. Mrs Fullarton made a complete recovery, and so did the marriage.

For bona fide AWLs, it wasn’t too difficult to obtain work in the country, as the rural industry was exempt from the necessity of obtaining labour through the National Service Office. Under the heading ‘Employment of Deserters and AWL Personnel’, a document marked ‘secret’ admitted to the ease with which men absent without leave could gain legal employment and avoid apprehension. The AWL men were not asked for identity cards, and civilians were shielding them.

While on official leave, Pte Tom Klein was helping out on the family farm west of the Great Dividing Range, near Parkes in NSW, when his father came down with kidney stones. Not wanting to leave his younger brother alone in charge of the farm, Tom applied for an extension of leave to complete the harvest. He needed a doctor’s certificate and the authority of Manpower to further his application.

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