Family Name:
Field
Given Names:
Gregory
Gender:
Male
Birth-date:
Unknown, possibly 1951
Death-date:
Unknown
Marital Status:
Unknown, probably single
Age Range:
Early 20s
Location:
NSW
Occupation:
Unknown
Primary Motivation:
Draft Resister, anti-conscription
Reason for Court Appearance:
Failure to register for national service
Court Name and Location:
Court of Petty Sessions, Newcastle
Court Hearing Date:
6 December 1971
Court Outcome:
Convicted and fined $40
Military Event:
National Service and Vietnam War 1964-1972
Further Information:
Gregory Field was from New South Wales. He opposed the National Service Act 1964 (NSA). He refused to register for a 1971 intake of conscripts. He was summoned to the Court of Petty Sessions at Newcastle. Magistrate C Edwards convicted and fined him $40. Gregory signed a statement, with many NSW draft resisters, published in Tharunka, a University Newspaper, dated 18 October 1972. It read in part, We have all publicly refused to comply with the National Service Act with the full expectation of being gaoled…We demand that the government stop back-pedalling and end selective conscription and gaol us now…We know that the government refuses to gaol because of the widespread opposition to conscription. We know that if the government did gaol us the Australian people would not tolerate it…We will not be conscripted. We will not register. We refused to condone the massed stupidity, the organized barbarism of your state. We defy you…all nations, all governments, all people dedicated to war. It is unlikely that Gregory was further prosecuted under the NSA. The government during 1971, and especially 1972, were reluctant to prosecute when the result would be jailing a young man. This was particularly in regard to a refusal to obey a call-up notice. This attracted 18 months’ imprisonment. The government aimed to minimize its political risk of having large numbers of young men in prison. All pending prosecutions under the NSA were stopped by the newly elected Whitlam Labor government in early December 1972.
Confirmatory Sources:
Tharunka, 18 October 1972, p.6.
Bobbie Oliver, Hell No! We Won’t Go! Resistance to Conscription in Post War Australia, Interventions, Melbourne, 2022, p.249.
THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL 