GUDGEON, Mac Irwin

Family Name:

Gudgeon

Given Names:

Mac Irwin

Gender:

Male

Birth-date:

Unknown, probably1949

Death-date:

Marital Status:

Unknown, probably single

Age Range:

Early 20s

Location:

NSW, Glebe

Occupation:

University Student

Primary Motivation:

Draft Resister-Pacifist and Anti-conscription

Reason for Court Appearance:

Refusal to register for national service

Court Name and Location:

Unknown, Sydney

Court Hearing Date:

30 November 1969

Court Outcome:

Fined $40 plus costs $62 or in lieu 51 days in jail

Military Event:

National Service and Vietnam War 1964-1972

Further Information:

Mac Gudgeon was from Glebe in New South Wales. He was a second year Arts and Law student at Sydney University. He was an executive member of the South-Coast Citizens against Conscription. He was also Convenor of the School for Non-Violence, NSW. He was a pacifist and against all violence and conscientiously opposed to military conscription. Accordingly, he informed the Minister of these views and that he would not comply with the National Service Act 1964 (NSA). He refused to register under the Act and to attend the mandatory medical examination.

He wrote a statement on 12 March 1969 which was published in the Peacemaker. He stated, I believe that the National Service Act which compels young men to be conscripted to kill their fellow human beings, often against their will, is a law that is not for the protection and welfare of humanity as a whole. I believe the most effective way to rid the Australian people of this law is to refuse to comply with it by not registering…By refusing to register I face two years in gaol: this in my opinion is a small price to pay for a clear conscience. He continued, I am a pacifist. Therefore I am against violence and warfare…We are now faced with two alternatives: either refuse to have any more wars or take the risk of destroying every man, woman and child on the earth. Mac then turns to his opposition to military conscription; Conscription is an integral part of war and now possibly the suicide of mankind. To support conscription is to support this possibility and in fact to hasten it. I refuse to be part of the destruction of mankind. Mac recognises that he could make an application to be fully exempted from military service under the NSA but states, I have an opportunity to place my beliefs before a court and gain exemption. However, I do not consider this sufficient. I must reject the right of a government to conscript anyone to kill.

Mac’s parents shared his views and were outspoken against conscription and the Vietnam War. His mother chained herself to the Federal Parliamentary Gallery during an anti-conscription protest during 1970. His father was a pharmacist of long-standing in Wollongong. He was deprived of a ten-year contract with a Returned Servicemen’s League rest home for his views, and perhaps because of Mac’s draft resistance. His parents attended a Celebration of the Victory of the Viet Minh at the Wollongong Workers Club during June 1975.

A warrant was issued for Mac’s arrest for his continued non-compliance on 24 March 1972. It is unknown what happened after that, but he was not imprisoned at the time of the suspension of the NSA and an end to of all prosecutions on 6 December 1972 by the newly elected Whitlam Labor government.

Confirmatory Sources:

Peacemaker, January/ February 1969, p.6; March/ April 1969, pp.6 and 7; November/ December 1969, p.8; May/ June 1970, p4.

Tribune, 4 November 1970, p.3; 17 June 1975, p.12.