BEE, Eric

Family Name:

Bee

Given Names:

Eric

Gender:

Male

Birth-date:

1897

Death-date:

Unknown

Marital Status:

Unknown

Age/ Age Range:

45-46

Location:

VIC, Ballarat

Occupation:

Unknown

Primary Motivation:

Conscientious Objector – Religious Pacifism

Reason for Court Appearance:

[1] Refused to report for non-combatant duties
[2] Unknown

Court Name and Location:

[1] Unknown
[2] Ballarat Magistrate’s Court

Court Hearing Date:

[1] 1942
[3] February 1943

Court Outcome:

[1] 14 days in prison
[2] 1 month in prison

Military Event:

World War II 1939-1945

Further Information:

Eric Bee was a member of the Church of the Body, a branch of the Apostolic Church, in Ballarat. In 1942, he was ordered to perform non-combatant duties, but refused on religious grounds. He was sentenced to 14 days in prison. In February 1943, he was sentenced by Magistrate G.S. Callow of Ballarat to one month in prison for the same crime. The Peacemaker protested that this strategy of sentencing COs twice for the same crime was ‘persecution’, based on the infamous ‘cat-and-mouse’ prosecutions used in Britain in World War I.

Confirmatory Source: The Peacemaker, 1 February 1942, p. 1; 15 March 1943, p1; 15 April 1943, p. 1.