Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 149
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[Page 149]
74
In 1909, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener was invited to visit Australia, officially, by the Commonwealth Government. He and his Staff made a very thorough inspection of our existing Army units and installations. Following his subsequent recommendations, the Commonwealth Universal Service Act came into force early in 1911. Incidentally, at this time our naval defence was the responsibility of the Royal Navy, represented in Sydney Harbour by H.M.S. "Powerful", mounting one turreted 9.2 inch gun fore and aft, and a secondary battery of six-inch guns in casements along each side. The new Defence Act was popularly known as "Compulsory Training", and it required that henceforth all medically fit boys, from the age of fifteen, would have to join new Senior Cadet battalions, numbered according to an area organisation, and that they should be transferred into militia units on reaching the age of eighteen, and be transferred to Army Reserve, as fully trained soldiers, seven years later.
As I became eighteen years old in 1912, I was among the first batch of youths caught up in this new scheme. Existing Drill Halls were taken over (and new ones hurriedly built) in all the more populous suburbs, and staffed with part-time Area Officers (Majors) and permanent drill-instructors and administrators (Sergeant Majors): the latter belonged to a new permanent body styled the Administrative and Instructional Corps; A.I.C. for short. The only other permanent soldiers were those of the Royal Australian Artillery.
It was prescribed that the equivalent of eight days training, in each year, had be to made up by attendance at night drills of two hours duration, and Saturday afternoon four-hour parades, once a month, at, or in, the vicinity of a drill hall, and that an annual camp lasting eight continuous days must also be attended.
Much to our sorrow the old G.P.S volunteer battalion was disbanded, the greatest blow being the loss of our smart green and khaki uniforms. We were now compelled to wear a felt slouch hat of a very ugly shape with a plain cloth hatband instead of a pugaree and an undented smooth round crown like that of a bowler, or "Charlie Chaplin" hat. Instead of a proper tunic, a