ALLEN Harold

Family Name:

Allen

Given Names:

Harold

Gender:

Male

Birth-Date:

5 August 1923

Death-Date:

27 January 2006

Marital Status:

Single

Age Range:

19 years old

Location:

NSW, Homebush, Lidcombe, Berrima

Occupation:

Nurseryman

Primary Motivation:

Conscientious Objector-pacifism religious

Reason for Court/ Tribunal Appearance:

[1] Application to be exempted from military service

[2] Refused to take the oath of enlistment

[3] Second refusal to enlist

[4] Appeal against the refusal to not grant exemption from military service

Court Name and Location:

[1] NSW, Burwood Court of Petty Sessions

[2] NSW, Burwood Court of Petty Sessions

[3] NSW, Moss Vale Court

[4] NSW, Campbelltown Quarter Sessions Court

Court Hearing Date:

[1] 29 April 1942

[2] 28 September 1942

[3] 26 May1943

[4] Unknown, possibly July 1943

Court Outcome:

[1] Application for exemption from military service as a conscientious objection was not granted

[2] Summonsed and convicted and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour

[3] Summonsed and convicted and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment

[4] Granted full exemption from military duties on appeal

Military Event:

WW11 1939-1945

Further Information:

Harold Allen was born in 1923 at Balclutha, New Zealand to Australian parents. He and his parents returned to Australia in 1926. They settled at Cessnock and then Paxton where Harld went to Paxton Public School. Some years later they moved to Katoomba where Harold went to Katoomba High School, then to West Ryde and its High School. Later Harold lived at Homebush and Lidcombe in Sydney, New South Wales. Then he lived at Berrima in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Harold completed early High School level. By occupation he was a nurseryman, employed by Anderson’s Seed Company and trained by the renowned landscape gardener Paul Sorenson. He had walked into Anderson’s Seed Company and asked if they had any jobs. He was hired for £3 per week.

He applied to be exempted from military service on 29 April 1942 as a conscientious objector. His conscientious objection was based on religious grounds. Harold was a member of the Open Brethren church. Pacifism was favoured by the church, but it allowed a person to be guided by their conscience on war and militarism. Harold stated that his mother was a big influence on his pacifist beliefs. She instilled into them verses such as “Thou shalt not kill”, “Live peaceably with each other” and “swear not at all”. He related an incident where an uncle was made to return his gift of boxing gloves, replacing them with a cricket set.

Harold failed his first medical when he was called up in September 1941 as his chest measurements were too small. In April 1942 he was called up again and this time he passed. the medical. On 29April he applied for exemption from military duties as a conscientious objector based on his religious pacifism. His application was refused. He was asked to take part in a mass oath taking ceremony which he refused to do so. He was summonsed to the hearing at Burwood Court of Petty Sessions on 29 September 1942. The charge was refusing to take the oath of enlistment. He was convicted and sentenced to 6 months hard labour by Magistrate Hawkings. He met a young Christian boy, an orphan named Eric Swift who had received a call-up notice on the same date as Harold. Both he and Eric were convicted and sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment.

They was taken by the military to the Victorian Barracks. Harold said that when he refused to take the oath of enlistment a military officer shouted and raved and ranted. The officer said, I hope you spend 6 long months in Long Bay, in fact, you’re in the Army now and will go to Holsworthy and that is 10 times worse. He was imprisoned at Long Bay Gaol but 5 weeks later he, and Eric Swift, were transferred to Emu Plains Prison. He stated that, the Governor of the gaol would send him out on errands because he knew he would return.

Harold was released from Emu Plains possibly late March 1943. Paul Sorenson picked him up and took him home. Anderson’s Seed Company sent Paul Sorenson and a number of young workers down to Berrima, where they grew vegetables for seeds. Andersons did what they could to keep Harold out of the army. Alas he was told to report to Goulburn on the 6 May 1943 to enlist in the Army. He once again refused to enlist. Again, he was summonsed to court and charged a second time with the offence of refusing to take the oath of enlistment. On 26 May 1943 he appeared at the Moss Vale Court. He was convicted and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment which were spent in Long Bay Gaol. He served only 20 days

Previously there had been no right of appeal, but a new Government had come to power and the right of appeal had been reinstated. There were 21 days allowed to appeal and on day 20 of serving his sentence, the Anderson Seed Company paid bail for his release and then put in an appeal against the refusal to register him as a conscientious objector. This is a positive example of where a conscientious objector’s employer supported them because many dismissed them or reported them to the authorities. Paul Sorenson testified that he had 2 sons killed in the war and while he didn’t share Harolds belief’s he did believe that Harold’s beliefs were sincere. Harold was granted full exemption at Campbelltown Quarter Sessions Court, possibly in July 1943.

The prison conditions for conscientious objectors were very poor. This was especially so for Long Bay Gaol where Norman spent some time. Emu Plains was marginally better. Personal cleanliness was given scant regard by the warders. A clean shirt was supposed to have been issued to a prisoner once a week. But sometimes this did not happen. The prisoners wore rough ill-fitting clothes with a large number of the back and front. The food rations were sparse and served without due regard for hygiene. A Conscientious Objectors Group ensured the conscientious objector prisoners received visits from family and friends. The prison bible was permitted reading but prisoners ha d to request a copy, Sometimes the pages containing the sermon of the mount were removed presumably because of Christ’s statement ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Harold shared a cell with Eric Swift initially and at a later time Edward Hartley joined them. They were asked if they would like to share a cell with another conscientious objector prisoner. Later this was regretted as they had little in common with a Jehovah’s Witness who had a very mean streak.. Harold says they were allowed to write a letter per week which was censored. On Sunday mornings they had to queue up and there were 6 pens between 100 men. It was a long wait. The cells which housed 3 men were 6 foot wide and 8 feet long and the only furniture was their coir mats on cement floors. Also in the cell was a sanitary bucket and if it was used it stayed there until the next morning. Breakfast was watery porridge. For dinner they had meat and vegetables and half a loaf of bread which they divided into six to last them through the day. They were awoken at 6am and washed out their buckets then went to breakfast. After this they were locked in again until muster when they were given their jobs. Their lunch was had in their cells before they went back to their jobs. Harold’s first job was to clean the Officer’s toilets but later he worked in the vegetable garden. At 3.30pm there was a muster and at 4.30pm they were locked in for the night. On the walls of the cells the prisoners would mark off how many days they had served and would find satisfaction as the days to serve became the smaller number. The wage for doing jobs was an extra meal or a penny a day which did not benefit them until they were released. When Harold was released from Goulburn Gaol, they gave him a free pass back to Moss Vale and he had 10 Shillings which paid for his fare back to Sydney.

Harold died in Toowoomba, Queensland on 27 January 2006.

Confirmatory Sources:

Interview, Gwenneth Federici (nee Allen) 27 February 2025

Hand-written notes by Harold Allen’s in E.G. Hartley’s papers (held by Gwen Allen).

Bobbie Oliver, Peacemongers; Conscientious objectors to military service in Australia 1911-1945, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997, pp.134-135.

Harold Allen on the left

Curtesy: Gwenneth Federici (nee Allen)