THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL

Family Name:

Rivett

Given Names:

Kenneth Deakin

Gender:

Male

Birth-date:

1923

Death-date:

2004

Marital Status

Single

Age/ Age Range:

19-21

Location:

VIC, Malvern

Occupation:

Farm labourer

Primary Motivation:

Conscientious Objector – Humanist Paficism

Reason for Court Appearance:

Applied for exemption from military service as a conscientious objector

Court Name and Location:

Court of Petty Sessions, Oakleigh, VIC.

Court Hearing Date:

21 September 1942.

Court Outcome:

Granted conditional exemption

Military Event:          

World War II 1939-1945

Further Information:

Kenneth Rivett was the son of Sir David Rivett, chief executive officer of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (later the CSIRO).  His pacifism, based on humanist (rather than Christian) belief began early in life.  When still attending high school before the war, he and a friend, Alastair Kershaw, founded an Australian affiliate of the British War Resisters International, later renamed the Australian Peace Pledge Union (APPU).  The nucleus was a group of school students and ex-students, who operated from a dingy office on the third floor of the Melbourne Chambers, a central city building marked for demolition.  As war became more and more imminent, their aim was to prevent the re-introduction of military conscription. Kenneth was the APPU Secretary.  He wrote letters to the papers, expressing his anti-war beliefs.  He used a penname to avoid embarrassing his famous father.

When a Melbourne Conscientious Objectors Group formed in 1940, Kenneth was a founding member of the Central Committee.  He applied for exemption from military service in 1942, stating in court that ‘in the last resort it is better for a country to be annexed than expose its people to the horrors of war’. He believed that ‘there are non-violent methods of defending our freedom and culture’. Kenneth studied at the University of Melbourne, gaining his PhD in Economics in 1945. Throughout his life, he remained a prominent campaigner for peace.

Confirmatory Sources:

K.D. Rivett, the University of Melbourne Workshop interview with M. Clark, 18 May 1982, Melbourne University Archives; Kenneth Deakin Rivett Papers, Melbourne University Archives Accession No. 81/136; 83/100; 87/80, Series 1-10.