PUSEY, Barrye Max

Family Name:

Pusey

Given Names:

Barrye Max

Gender:

Male

Birth-Date:

Unknown, possibly 1936

Death-Date:

Unknown

Marital Status:

Unknown, single

Age:

18 Years old

Location:

NSW, Belmont

Occupation:

Window Dresser

Primary Motivation:

Conscientious Objector, religious

Reason for Court Appearance:

Application for total exemption from duties as a conscientious objector

Court Name and Location:

Court of Petty Sessions, Newcastle

Court Hearing Date:

30 December 1954

Court Outcome:

Exemption from combatant duties only

Military Event:

National Service 1951-1959

Further Information:

Barrye Pusey was from Belmont in New South Wales and was a Window Dresser by trade. He was a Jehovah’s Witness and described himself as a preacher of the Jehovah’s Gospel religion. He applied for total exemption from military duties as a conscientious objector under the National Service Act 1951. His hearing was at the Newcastle Court of Petty Sessions on 30 December 1954, before Magistrate W McAndrew. Barrye told the court, He was seeking exemption as a conscientious objector, not as a minister of religion. He said, he was not a pacifist but would fight only when the Jehovah God commanded him to do so. Mr Bruand Legal Counsel for the Department of Labour and National Service, asked him, if God ordered him to fight, whether he would fight. Barrye replied, that Jehovah did not order people to fight with weapons, the spirit was the only sword. Despite this the magistrate exempted him from combatant military duties only. Mr Braund, assured the court that Barrye would be assigned to the Army Medical Corps.

Confirmatory Sources:

Peacemaker, March 1955, p.2.

Bobbie Oliver, Hell No! We Won’t Go! Resistance to Conscription in Post War Australia, Interventions, Melbourne, 2022, p.231.