THE PERILS OF GENEALOGY…..(Revised)

[Stanley]

THE PERILS OF GENEALOGY…..(Revised)
 
11 November 2005 
As the maroons went off to mark the two minutes silence for the war dead I was just finishing downloading 69 documents from the Australian National Archive which covered my father’s war service. Here are my first impressions….. 
(and this is the bit that worries me a bit) 
Uncontrolled astonishment and as it all sank in, hilarity.  At first reading, he left Australia on 25th November 1916, arrived in UK 29th January 1917.  Joined Training Battalion 30th January 1917.  To hospital on 20th February 1917, discharged back to Battalion 6th of March 1917.  Crimed for conduct prejudicial on 12th March; 7 days Field Punishment.  18th May 1917 transferred to 1st Light Railway Operating Company.  Embarked for France 29th May 1917.  31 May 1917 to hospital, discharged back to unit on 1st of August 1917.  27th of October 1917 back in hospital, discharged 7th November 1917. Sent to England on leave and the next mention is he is in hospital in UK on 27th July 1918 with a dose of clap picked up from ‘a professional’ in Glasgow.  Discharged from hospital 12 October 1918 and back in with same complaint on 19th October 1918, discharged to Staff of 1st ADH (Australian Imperial force Depot Headquarters) on 26th April 1919.  On 12th October 1919 he went absent and was declared Illegal Absentee on 1st April 1920.  Discharged 21 July 1920 as Illegal Absentee. 
Also in the docs is evidence that he left a wife in Australia that we never knew about.  Her entitlement to his pay was stopped on 19th February 1920.   
It’s early days and I have only just read this lot.  I suppose my prime reaction should be shock, he told me he had been at Gallipoli!  He hadn’t even left Oz then.  But the more I read the more I laughed, there is something quite surreal about starting the day with a war hero for a dad and ending it with absolute proof that he spent most of his service in dock with the Clap!  My reckoning is that there is a possibility he was in France  between December 1917 and July 1918 but even this is uncertain (there is a large rubber stamp ‘FORFEITS’ that obscures what might be a date that could give a clue) and we know that for part of this he was in hospital. 
So, not exactly a glorious war service but for all his faults he is still the father I knew and I just find it so surreal to find that all my perceptions of his life during WW1 have to be modified.  The bottom line is that when you start to dig in the closet you may well find skelingtons……  
SCG/11 November 2005

I've thought a lot about this since.  For anyone who hasn't read the LG Story, he tells a good tale about his WW1 exploits which rings true but is almost total fabrication.  Why did he do it?  I reckon that when he deserted in 1919 he had to manufacture a legend to make himself attractive to an employer.  Remember that one of the most efficient administrative moves the government made at the end of WW1 was to cancel all the armaments contracts and get as many personnel off the payroll as they could.  Look up the 'Geddes Axe' on Google....  We think he started work on the heavy gang at Armstrong Whitworths at Trafford Park in Manchester.  They were one of the largest armament manufacturers.  So he gave himself a medal, created a legend and got a job.  I don't blame him for this, he was surviving.  To this day I think kindly of the 'professional lady' who probably saved his life and ensured that I got to be born.

I suppose some people would bury a story like this but, and this probably says much about me, I have no shame, in fact I think it's hilarious and is a good example of the total irrationality of war.  As far as I am concerned it all worked out quite well.  Far better than it did for My Grandad Shaw who was killed in the same conflict.  I suppose it was a lottery.