Lincoln Todman & Compulsory Cadet Training

 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 14^th and 18^th 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 14^th 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.

Photographer unknown, Lincoln Todman with friends, Citizen Forces Annual Training Camp, between 1925 - 1927, Point Cook, Victoria, Australia. [T072] (Lincoln on the righthand side of the tent pole) 

On 1 July 1927 with the rank of fitter Armourer, he was moved to the Non-effective list of the Citizen Air Force at his own request for two years. Why this request was made is unclear, he was due to return to the Citizen Air Force in 1929, although if he did or not is also unclear as there are no entries in his personnel file to indicate what happened.

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