Chapter 3
The AAPC Soldier
Unsurprisingly, the AAPC Soldier had a work background similar to that described above. This was true irrespective of whether the Soldier served in the AAPC during or after the cessation of hostilities. Of the AAPC Soldiers who served during hostilities, 73% had a clerical occupational background and 13% identified themselves as Accountants or Auditors. The majority worked in commercial concerns followed by the Banking sector. For those who served after the Armistice, the majority (64%) had clerical occupations prior to the war followed by sales type occupations (9%) such as Shop Assistant or Commercial Traveller. Again, the majority were employed in commerce followed by the Banking sector.
Patsy Adam-Smith described John Simpson Kirkpatrick, 'the man with the donkey', as the typical ANZAC -'redolent as a gum tree, as Australian as a Kangaroo, a real colonial spirit'.9 While that description came to embody the Australian fighting Soldier, it also to applied many of those who served in the AAPC. Of those who served in the AAPC, 81% were born in Australia with the majority born in cities or regional towns, approximately 17% were born in the British Isles and the remainder born in other parts of the British Empire. Of the 1,152 records reviewed, only three men were born outside the British Empire: two were from the US and one from Denmark. Within the British Empire, AAPC Soldiers came from as far afield as Canada, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Fiji.
The average AAPC Soldier was aged 26 and was born in Victoria, consistent with Victoria having the highest population in Australia at the time. He was most likely to be a Protestant and unmarried. His civilian occupation was of a clerical nature in a commercial enterprise and it was likely that he had some prior military experience either in the cadets or militia.
On enlistment the average AAPC Soldier weighed in at 10 stones 1 pound (64 kilograms) and was 5 feet 8 inches (172 cm) in height, which exceeded the tough minimum standards set at the beginning of the war. By today's standards these men had a very healthy Body Mass Index and many in the AAPC were keen and accomplished sportsman, a number having played football (AFL) and cricket at a high level. The most common illness or injury he would have suffered during his service with the AAPC would have been a respiratory illness such as influenza, bronchitis or pleurisy.
The men of the AAPC were mostly members of the Protestant faith (84%) with Catholics the next largest group at 13% followed by 'Other' at 5%, which included agnostics, atheists, no religion stated and unspecified members of smaller, usually Protestant, congregations. Seven members of the AAPC were of the Jewish faith. Within the Protestant faiths, 60% were Church of England with this faith accounting for 49% of the AAPC overall, followed by Presbyterians at 23%, Methodists at 15% and Baptists at 3%.
Of the service records examined, 86 individuals of the AAPC (just under 8%) were identified as contracting a venereal disease (VD), some of them on multiple occasions. This is consistent if slightly higher than the rate of infection within the overall AIF of 7% throughout the war.10 This is not surprising as most AAPC men had more ready access to commercial sex than frontline Soldiers, although many of those who contracted VD did so during their time in frontline Units. Whether this shows less moral rectitude or less discipline is not known. However, of the 138 men who directly attested into the AAPC without having served in another Unit, only two contracted VD during their service.
The most prevalent form of VD contracted by members of the AIF was gonorrhoea (often referred to as the 'clap') with syphilis also common. Catching a VD was considered a self-inflicted wound and the punishment was forfeiture of pay for the duration of the treatment, which could take months. Extended treatment for VD could impact the Soldier's dependants, who could suddenly find their allotment and Separation Allowances being withheld without knowing the reason why - this will be discussed in detail later.
The real punishment was the cure itself, which was exceedingly painful at worst and uncomfortable at best, this being many years before the invention of antibiotics. The most common treatment involved the use of heavy metals, which were known for their antibacterial properties. For the treatment of syphilis, a mixture of mercury and arsenic was injected into the patient along with a dermal treatment consisting of the same plus silver for application to the syphilitic chancre. The treatment for gonorrhoea involved an injection of silver deep into the patient's urethra.11 Abstinence and prevention were clearly the best cures for VD; however, the easy availability of commercial sex in Egypt, France and England coupled with latent Victorian moral attitudes to sex made its control extremely difficult for the authorities.
Many of those who transferred into the AAPC from frontline Units had been wounded in action, with 23% having received gunshot wounds (the most common), shrapnel wounds or gassing. Of those who served in the AAPC, 3% had been wounded on multiple occasions. The most common health affliction amongst Soldiers of the AAPC were illnesses of the lungs and throat, commonly influenza and tonsillitis. Serving in cold and damp conditions exacerbated this along with working in cramped accommodation. Stomach and bowel complaints were common, as were skin conditions, particularly scabies and boils. The combined effect of wounds and frequent illness coupled with overwork caused a condition broadly defined as 'debility' or the physical and sometimes mental breakdown of a Soldier - approximately 5% of those who served in the AAPC suffered from this condition.
The men of the AAPC were no different to others in the AIF when it came to falling foul of Army regulations. On balance though, the men of the AAPC were relatively well behaved. Some of them had infringed the regulations prior to joining the AAPC and had clean records afterwards whereas others got into trouble irrespective of the Unit in which they served. By far the most common crime was being Absent Without Leave (AWL). Of the 1,152 records examined, 136 men in the AAPC had their records noted for being AWL. The punishment for being AWL could range from a severe reprimand, to Field Punishment, to detention. For any punishment greater than a severe reprimand, the Soldier also forfeited his pay for the time he was AWL, the duration of his punishment plus the time it took to conduct a disciplinary hearing, which, in the case of a Court Martial, could be many weeks.
The disciplinary records contain details of insubordination and drunkenness, but these were relatively infrequent and subject to relatively minor punishments. There was one instance of desertion that occurred, but this was after the end of hostilities. The Soldier in question went missing for nearly a year and when found was imprisoned for eight months along with forfeiting 358 days' pay.12
The 138 men who directly attested into the AAPC, including the 30 identified as being recruited in the 1917-1918 special enlistments for service in London HQ, made up just under 12% of the total men who served. Over half (55%) of the men who served in the AAPC were originally from Infantry or Light Horse Units, followed by the Artillery (12%). Interestingly, there were members who joined the AAPC having previously served in the Royal Australian Navy's Naval Bridging Train, the Camel Corps and the Army Veterinary Corps.
Prior to enlisting in the AIF for Active Service, over 44% of those who ended up in the AAPC had prior military service. Most of this prior service was in the Citizen or Territorial Forces and the Junior and Senior Cadets, products of the Australian Government's compulsory military training scheme. Fourteen members of the AAPC were veterans of the Boer War and one member was a veteran of the Sudan campaign. Another five members joined up early in the war, serving with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) sent to capture German New Guinea.
The majority of those who found themselves in the AAPC had enlisted in Victoria (43%) followed by New South Wales (28%), Queensland (11%), Western Australia (10%) and South Australia (9%). Many of Australia's largest commercial enterprises and the Headquarters of Federal Government departments were located in Victoria and were large employers of clerks so the fact that the majority of the AAPC came from this state is not surprising. Two members enlisted at sea while working as crewmen on the transport ships and one member, a former Gold Prospector in South Africa and Boer War veteran of Lovat's Scouts, stowed away in Cape Town and attested to the 6th Battalion on the journey to England.13
Over half of those who served in the AAPC joined the AIF before or during 1915, with 20% volunteering in 1916. A total of 118 of them had served at Gallipoli in their original regiments. Consistent with the AIF, enlistments dropped off dramatically from 1917 onwards. The award of service medals to members of the AAPC is almost inversely proportional to the enlistment years. Just over 35% received the 1914/1915 Star, War Medal and Victory Medal whereas 55% received the War Medal and Victory Medal and 8% received the War Medal only. There are a number of men where there appears to be no record of medals being issued; medals were forfeited due to misconduct or men were simply ineligible for medals because they joined up too late.
The reason for this inverse relationship is...
