Oct 234 min read

Still serving our Australian Defence Forces after 125 years

Corporal Lindsay Cox in 1965 during his time serving with the Citizens Military Forces. Inset: His latest book, ‘Still Serving’, will be launched at the Australian War Memorial on Thursday 7 November.

BY LINDSAY COX*

Sixty years ago, when I was a young infantry ‘Choco’ skirmishing around in the heat and the dust of Scrub Hill, Puckapunyal, I bumped into a Landrover parked under a gum tree, where a Salvo bloke was handing out drinks of cold cordial to my fellow Citizen Military Forces mates. I still remember how satisfying that drink was!

I did not give much thought to the work of the Red Shield officers handing out drinks to thirsty diggers in times of peace or war, at least not until about 30 years later when I headed up a project to record what The Salvation Army did during World War Two.

The story of The Salvation Army’s temporal (and spiritual) care for members of the Australian Defence Forces goes back to the Boer War in South Africa in 1899. General William Booth’s belief in Christian brotherhood and the internationalism of The Salvation Army led him to order Adjutant Mary Murray and a relief party of ‘Troop-work Officers’ to be sent to minister comfort and practical aid to the men of both sides of the conflict.

After arriving in South Africa, Captain Marmaduke Ashman wrote: “The strain of getting to the camps five miles from Ladysmith is amply compensated by the sight of the eager crowd of soldiers which gathers around the cart for a drink and a cake.”

In World War One, Adjutant Robert Henry was The Salvation Army’s first accredited ‘Military Secretary’ sent overseas. In France, he established a ‘Hot Coffee Joint’ within the range of the enemy’s artillery and located at a busy intersection with a constant stream of khaki-clad men passing. Henry said, “Now we can’t give them mugs, so we simply double back the lid of the opened condensed milk tins, dip them into the steaming urn and hand it piping hot to the soldier in the slowly moving queues.”

In 1995, The Red Shield History Project gathered 184 oral history interviews, which resulted 25 years later in the publishing of Cuppa Tea, Digger? that recounted many amazing stories about the ubiquitous Salvo ‘cuppa’.

One of the first interviewees was Private Alexander McConnell of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion: “In 1941 I was enjoying the solitude of an outpost on the Tobruk perimeter when I was rudely interrupted by a Salvo bloke asking: ‘Do you want a cuppa, or some paper to write home to your mother?’ The same thing happened several times in the ensuing months, so I shifted to El Alamein to escape him, but up he bobbed again just as cheerful as ever. The only way to dodge him was to go to New Guinea. On the Sattelberg Track my mates and I managed to isolate ourselves for several days. I thought, ‘At last I’m free’, but would you believe me, there was the cheerful Salvo bloke with his coffee urn and writing paper.”

The ubiquitous ‘cuppa’ followed the Australian serviceman to conflicts in Korea, Malaya, and Borneo in the 15 years after World War Two and then to Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s.

Private Tom Corrigan of 1RAR recalled alighting from a helicopter after returning from a “brush-up” with the Viet Cong and being greeted by a Salvo bloke with a cold drink and packet of PK. “The drink was welcome, but it was more so the act of caring that was the start of the healing process for the trauma we had been through.”

Then, there were the conflicts in Cambodia, Somalia, and East Timor in the 1990s, each accompanied by the Salvo ‘cuppa’.

The modern-day Sallyman and Sallyma’am continue their commitment to this, the 125th year of serving the men and women of the Australian Defence Force.

It is appropriate that as Remembrance Day approaches, we remember the service of the men and women of the Red Shield Defence Services and their forebears, just as we recall the suffering and sacrifice of all those who have experienced war.

Still Serving, the prequel to Cuppa Tea, Digger?, tells the story of the early days of The Salvation Army’s philanthropic attachment to the military. It honours the 125th anniversary of the RSDS and will be launched at the celebratory dinner at the Australian War Memorial on 7 November. (see ads below).

Still Serving is available for purchase from the Salvos Publishing website. Click here

Major Brett Gallagher, Chief Commissioner of The Salvation Army’s Red Shield Defence Services.

Major Brett Gallagher, Chief Commissioner of Red Shield Defence Services, says: “The way these early Salvos sacrificed to ensure that our serving men and women could not only receive comfort, respite and refreshment but also a listening ear, combined with appropriate words of support, encouragement and cheer, spurs our team on to do the same.”

Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Savige pronounced in 1945: “The Salvation Army has won a deserved place in the mind of the Australian Army. The cup of coffee given to a man in danger or an exhausted wounded soldier is something of Christ – it is the knowledge that someone cares.”

*Lindsay Cox is the manager of The Salvation Army Museum in Melbourne