Universal Service Scheme, 1911–1929
“Between 1911 and 1929
Australian males aged between 18 and 60 were required to perform militia
service within Australia and its territories”.[i] “From 1 July 1911 cadet training was made compulsory as part of the
system of peacetime conscription in Australia.”
[ii]
All male inhabitants of Australia including those that had resided
Australia for six months and British subjects were expected to train under
what was known as the Universal Service Scheme, 1911–1929 as follows: [iii]
- from 12 to 14 years of age, in the junior cadets;
- from 14 to I8 years of age, in the senior cadets;
- from I8 to 26 years of age, in the citizen forces.
Junior Cadets
“Boys aged
12–14 were registered as Junior cadets, although as a non-uniformed
classroom-based activity their classification as ‘cadets’ is dubious.”[iv] “Junior cadet training was entirely in the
hands of school teachers, who had first been trained by military officers. This early training was less military in
nature than focused on physical drill and sport. It also acted to inculcate boys with the
notions of loyalty to country and empire.
At this age, uniforms were not worn, although there were schools with
pre-existing uniformed cadet units, who continued to do so.”[v]
Lincoln was born in 1906 in
Victoria, Australia.[vi] He became part of the
compulsory Junior cadets while attending Hawksburn State School at the age of 12
in 1918. As a junior cadet, he would have been involved in such activities
as “squad drill, physical exercises, organised games, first aid and swimming.”[vii]
“Every school day at least
fifteen minutes are spent in the training of junior cadets, the total hours of
training for the year amounting to ninety. … All parts of the body are exercised
in due proportions, and the lesson includes exercises calculated to develop
mental control over muscular action.”[viii]
Senior Cadets in Quota 1906
“After a boy has completed his training in the Junior
Cadets, he passes into the Senior Cadets, where he is trained during the period
between the 14th and 18th years of age.”[ix] “Senior Cadet training began each July for
all eligible boys turning 14 at any time during the year”[x]
“Senior Cadet training operated on a ‘quota’ system with a
quota defined as the set of boys who became eligible for registration when they
turned 14 in any given year.”[xi]
Training took 64 hours a year and included “the following: Physical training, squad drill without arms, and semaphore squad drill with arms, care of arms, section of drill, musketry instruction and exercises, company drill, range practise. There is allotted to each senior cadet for range practise, field practice and matches, 150 rounds of ammunition per year.”[xii] [xiii] The program had been modernised and was being supplemented with sport by 1920, “Youths and boys who were bored mentally and wearied physically by squad drill extending over several hours are finding pleasure in the recreational exercises and improved means of physical culture now offered to them. … The young soldier, therefore, will be instructed, developed and entertained in many ways useful in training, not only for the military purposes but also for citizenship.”[xiv]
At fourteen
Lincoln he moved onto the Senior Cadets of Area 14AB (Prahran) on 27 January
1920 and trained in area 14 AB(Prahran).[xv]
The following year in 1921 there was a major re-organisation of Australia’s
military forces, as part of this process the 14th Battalion, an infantry
battalion of the Australian Army was raised again in 1921 as a part-time unit
of the Citizen Forces based in Victoria.”[xvi]
The new battalion was based in the southeast Melbourne area in Victoria and drew
its manpower from three previously existing Citizen Forces units which included
Lincoln’s group the 14th infantry Regiment.[xvii]
Lincoln
was promoted to Corporal on 21 May 1821 and successfully completed 4 years of
training between 1921 and 30 June 1824.[xviii]
At the time Lincoln joined the
scheme it was at its height and held some 99,000 members parading at school
locations or drill halls across the country.[xix]
Citizen Air Force - 1925 to 1927
Lincoln transferred to the Citizen Air Forces, Number 1 Squadron at Point Cook, on 7 September 1925. As part of Lincoln’s training, he would have participated in an annual training camp.
Sepia Saturday: Using Old Images As Prompt for New
Reflections – Prompt 269
WikiTree Link Lincoln James Todman
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[i] National
Archives of Australia: Fact Sheet 160 Universal military training in Australia,
1911-29, https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/fs-160-universal-military-training-in-australia-1911-29.pdf
accessed 6 May 2021
[ii] [Stockings,
C. (2008). Australian Army Cadets. In The Oxford Companion to Australian
Military History. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 May. 2021, from https://www-oxfordreference-com.ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517842.001.0001/acref-9780195517842-e-95.]
[iii] Johnston, E.N. The Australian System of Universal Training for Purposes of Military Defense citing Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. 6, No. 4, Military Training: Compulsory or Volunteer? (Jul., 1916), pp. 113-133 Published by: The Academy of Political Science URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1193283 Accessed: 05-05-2021 05:17 UTC page 116
[iv] Stockings, C. (2008). Australian Army Cadets. In The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 May. 2021, from https://www-oxfordreference-com.ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517842.001.0001/acref-9780195517842-e-95.
[v] State Library of South Australia, Children
and World War 1: Cadets – Cadet Training, https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/c.php?g=410371&p=2794665 accessed 6 May 2021
[vi] Birth
Certificate of Lincoln James Todman, born 20 July 1906, Registrar of Birth,
Death and Marriages, Victoria, Australia, 298/1906
[vii] 1916
'NEWS OF THE DAY.', The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), 5 January, p. 6. ,
viewed 05 May 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155126810
[viii]
1907, 'The Training of Junior Cadets.', The Lone hand W. McLeod], [Sydney
viewed 7 May 2021 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-419318852
[ix] Johnston, E.N. The Australian System of Universal Training for Purposes of Military Defense citing Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. 6, No. 4, Military Training: Compulsory or Volunteer? (Jul., 1916), pp. 113-133 Published by: The Academy of Political Science URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1193283 Accessed: 05-05-2021 05:17 UTC page 127
[x] Craig
A.J.Stockings, “The Torch and the Sword, A History of the Army Cadet Movement
in Australia 1866-2004 Thesis 2006, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH
WALES, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ACADEMY page 94, citing Notes of Lectures by
Lieutenant Colonel J.G. Legge (1911). CRS A1194, Item 12.11/4880 accessed http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:4394/SOURCE01?view=true
8 May 2021
[xi] Craig
A.J.Stockings, “The Torch and the Sword, A History of the Army Cadet Movement
in Australia 1866-2004 Thesis 2006, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH
WALES, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ACADEMY page 72, citing Notes of Lectures by
Lieutenant Colonel J.G. Legge (1911). CRS A1194, Item 12.11/4880 accessed http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:4394/SOURCE01?view=true
8 May 2021
[xii] Johnston, E.N. The Australian System of Universal Training for Purposes of Military Defense citing Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. 6, No. 4, Military Training: Compulsory or Volunteer? (Jul., 1916), pp. 113-133 Published by: The Academy of Political Science URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1193283 Accessed: 05-05-2021 05:17 UTC page 130
[xiii]
1920 'CADET TRAINING.', The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), 10 August, p.
8. , viewed 06 May 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203069539
[xiv] 1920
'Arms and the Nation', The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), 11 August,
p. 6. , viewed 06 May 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242309459
[xv] National
Archives of Australia: Air Services Branch CA 778; Department of Defence [III],
Central Office - Office of the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff - Personnel
(ACPERS-AF), CA 46; RAAF Personnel files of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs)
and other ranks, 1921-1948, Lincoln James Todman Service Number: 205018 (NAA:
A9301, 205018)
[xvi] https://amp.blog.shops-net.com/21802897/1/14th-battalion-australia.html
accessed 8 May 2021 [note “The 14th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the
Australian Army. Originally raised in 1914 as part of the Australian Imperial
Force for service in World War I, the battalion served at Gallipoli initially
before being sent to France where it served in the trenches along the Western
Front until the end of the war, when it was disbanded.]
[xvii]
https://amp.blog.shops-net.com/21802897/1/14th-battalion-australia.html
accessed 8 May 2021
[xviii]
National Archives of Australia: Air Services Branch CA 778; Department of
Defence [III], Central Office - Office of the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff
- Personnel (ACPERS-AF), CA 46; RAAF Personnel files of Non-Commissioned
Officers (NCOs) and other ranks, 1921-1948, Lincoln James Todman Service
Number: 205018 (NAA: A9301, 205018) [page 10]
[xix] Stockings, C. (2008). Australian Army Cadets. In The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 May. 2021, from https://www-oxfordreference-com.ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517842.001.0001/acref-9780195517842-e-95
