Family Name:
Bromwich
Given Names:
Charles Milton
Gender:
Male
Birth-date:
16 October 1908
Death-date:
Unknown
Marital Status:
Married
Age/Age Range:
34
Location:
NSW, Bathurst, NSW
Occupation:
Machine Operator, SAF.
Primary Motivation:
Conscientious Objector – Religious Pacifism.
Reason for Court Appearance:
[1] Application for exemption as a conscientious objector
[2] Appeal
[3] Failure to report for draft; refusal to take oath or affirmation
[4] Second appeal
[5] Failure to report for draft; refusal to take oath or affirmation (same charge).
Court Name and Location:
[1] – [5] Unknown, probably Bathurst.
Court Hearing Date:
[1] August 1942
[2] Unknown
[3] July 1943
[4] Unknown
[5] June 1944.
Court Outcome:
[1] Ordered to perform non-combatant duties
[2] Rejected
[3] Sentenced to three months in prison
[4] Sentence quashed.
[5] Sentenced to six months in prison, with hard labour. Governor General remitted his sentence after he had served one month.
Military Event:
World War II 1939-1945
Further Information:
Charles Bromwich was born on 16 October 1908. When conscripted he was 34 years old, married with five children. His wife was pregnant with a sixth child and in ill health. He also supported his aged father who was receiving an invalid pension. Charles was employed as a Machine Operator in Bathurst, NSW. He was a Jehovah Witness by faith and a member of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. He adhered to the Jehovah’s Witness belief in neutrality unless called upon by God to serve in the war. Charles applied for exemption as conscientious objector based on his religious beliefs. His application was heard in August 1942; the magistrate rejected it and ordered him to serve as a non-combatant. Charles’s appeal was dismissed. When he was called up, he refused to take an oath or affirmation. In July 1943, he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. This time his appeal succeeded, and his sentence was quashed. In 1944, however, Charles was again called up and went through the same process. His appeal failed and he served one month of a six-month sentence with hard labour before the Governor-General remitted his sentence after a plea for clemency by his counsel.
It wasn’t just Charles who suffered. While he was in prison, his family subsisted on two pounds and six shillings a week, provided by child endowment and his father’s pension. Ironically, Charles was sentenced to prison at the same time as soldiers were being transferred from the fighting forces to fill the need for rural labour. There seems little doubt that the military wanted to make an example of Charles Bromwich.
Confirmatory Sources:
Attorney General’s Commonwealth Police Files, NAA (Vic) MP742/1, B/7/739, Item ID 1090224. Title: Bromwich C.M. – conscientious objector; Correspondence between General Secretary of the Returned Services League (RSL) and the State Secretary (NSW Branch) in RSL Papers, Series I, 1107C, Box 122, National Library of Australia, Canberra, Accession no. 6609.
THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL 