General News
9 August, 2023
Arthur Wardlaw Brown
PULLQUOTE 'The threat of nuclear war hung over the entire world STORY Arthur Wardlaw Brown was one of the many National Service servicemen who served from the Wimmera. Arthur was in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1955–60, with the...
Arthur Wardlaw Brown was one of the many National Service servicemen who served from the Wimmera.
Arthur was in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1955–60, with the service number A312190.
Arthur was born on December 6 1936.
His next of kin on enlistment was “Mr Brown”.
Arthur started his service in the intake of July 4 1955 for a period of five months with the National Service Training Unit at Point Cook.
His training was as an airframe mechanic.
Arthur was transferred on December 5 1955 under the provisions of the National Service Act 1951, Section 33/4, “having completed the prescribed period of continuous training”.
For his follow-up training Arthur served in the RAAF General Reserve.
He was discharged with effect on June 30 1960 after serving five years at the Royal Australian Air Force Base Rathmines, near Newcastle, New South Wales.
His rank on discharge was aircraftman (recruit).
Arthur received the Australian Defence Medal and the Australian National Service Medal/Anniversary of National Service 1951–1972 Medal.
He died on August 1 2016.
National Service
Between 1951 and 1972 a total of 287,000 young Australian men were called up in two separate schemes for compulsory training in the navy, army and air force.
Of these, 212 died on active service in Borneo and Vietnam.
National Service was part of Australia’s defence preparedness for three decades.
It was a product of the post-World War II global and regional conflicts that Australia faced.
These began with the blockade of Berlin by the Soviet Union in 1948 and the first Arab-Israeli war the same year, and included Communist insurgencies in Malaya and Vietnam, Communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in 1950, the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, confrontation with Indonesia in Borneo in 1963 and the Vietnam War.
The threat of nuclear war hung over the entire world.
The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950, coupled with the Malayan Emergency and the Viet Minh uprising against the French in Vietnam, appeared to threaten Australia directly.
Recruiting for the regular armed services proving insufficient, the Menzies government reintroduced conscription, which had ended in 1945.
The legislation had bipartisan political support.
National Service had been part of the Australian tradition since Federation in 1901, providing volunteer forces for overseas service backed up by a pool of men with basic training in the Naval Reserve, the Citizens Military Forces and the Citizens Air Force.
In the first scheme from 1951 to 1959, National Service servicemen could nominate a service preference but in practice most were allocated to units near their homes.
The navy and air force gave preference to relatives of former personnel or members of cadet units.
Overseas service was automatic in the navy and air force.
In a major change for the army, National Service servicemen were given the option, at call-up, to volunteer for service anywhere overseas if war occurred.
Most Nashos volunteered.
Further corps training was needed for this.
World War II militia had been restricted to Australia and territories in the south-west Pacific.
The Korean armistice was signed in 1953 and no new direct threats developed during that decade so the basic role of National Service was to provide reservists.
The second scheme from 1965 to 1972 for the Borneo and Vietnam wars involved two years of full-time service integrated into expanded regular army units, with overseas deployment where required.
In the first National Service scheme of 1951–59, all young men aged 18 were called up for training in the navy, army or air force.
About 23,500 Nashos (including Arthur) undertook their training in National Service Training Units and were allocated to flights, corresponding to platoons, at the major air bases and depots throughout Australia such as Garbutt, Toowoomba, Oakey, Amberley and Archerfield in Queensland; Schofield, Richmond, Rathmines, Williamtown, Bankstown, Forest Hill and Uranquinty in New South Wales; Fairbairn in Canberra; Point Cook, Laverton, Frognall, Tottenham, Ballarat and East Sale in Victoria, Mallala in South Australia; and Pearce and Merredin in Western Australia.
National Service instructors were drawn from all three services and most had World War II, Korean, Borneo or Vietnam combat experience.
Under the National Service Act 1951, all young men turning 18 on or after November 1 1950 were required to undertake 176 days of standard recruit training in the navy, army and air force, followed by five years in their respective reserve.
Those in the first scheme did not see active service, except for the servicemen who enlisted and fought in Malaya, Korea, Borneo and Vietnam.
National Service servicemen were at the atomic bomb tests in 1952 at the Monte Bello islands in Western Australia and in 1956 at Maralinga in South Australia.
RAAF Nashos like Arthur worked on aircraft that had flown through atomic clouds.
Many National Service servicemen from both schemes later rose to high positions in politics, business, the professions and the community, among them Governors-General Bill Hayden and Dr Peter Hollingworth; Tasmanian Governors Sir Guy Green, William Cox and Peter Underwood; Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and federal minister Wilson Tuckey; Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett; Queensland Deputy Premier Sir Llew Edwards; Major-General Rod Fay; businessmen Lindsay Fox and Sir James Hardy; television personalities Clive James and Graham Kennedy; entertainer Normie Rowe; and sportsmen including tennis player Lew Hoad, cricketer Doug Walters and car racing legends Peter Brock and Dick Johnson.
No women were called up for National Service.