Jackboot Hangman's a low mongrel dog
Almost 16 years ago, Milton Cockburn, later to become editor of this newspaper, wrote a Herald profile of Howard, which was published on January 7, 1989, under the headline "What makes Johnny Run?". In it he wrote, in part: "[His] parents were supporters of the newly formed Liberal Party. He vaguely recalls the post-[World War II] turmoil of the long coal strike and the effects of petrol rationing on the Howard family garage at Dulwich Hill.
"Although he was only 10, he has a clear recollection of the 1949 election campaign that brought Menzies to power. He recalls the elation of his parents on the night of the election [that ended the Chifley Labor government]. He spoke recently of a celebratory backyard bonfire to burn the rationing card. His [three] elder brothers, however, remember petrol rationing as more a nuisance than a hardship and recall the fun they used to have counting the coupons their father brought home.
"John's father, Lyall, was a proud patriot. There are family suspicions he was a member of the New Guard, the unofficial militia which prospered between the wars." Lyall Howard was laid off in the 1930s as a fitter and turner with CSR. He and his father, Walter, then bought the garage that would be the family's livelihood for 20 years.
And the New Guard "suspicions"? It hasn't come up since.
David Barnett's 1997 hagiography, John Howard, Prime Minister, makes no mention of Lyall Howard's membership of the short-lived fascist New Guard movement, with Captain Francis De Groot's legendary deed in slashing the opening ribbon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in March 1932 before the Labor premier Jack Lang could do so.
The National Archives website says of the New Guard: "It was formed in Sydney in February 1931. It stood for 'unswerving loyalty to the throne, sane and honourable government, suppression of any disloyal and immoral elements in government, industrial and social circles, [and] the full liberty of the individual'. At its height, the New Guard had 50,000 members. The movement was almost exclusively based in NSW, with its heaviest concentration in Sydney. It appealed to conservative returned servicemen who were strongly anti-communist and deeply suspicious of [the Lang Labor government]."
The New Guard was dead by 1935. So was the Lang government, by three years. All these years later you have to wonder how family influences shaped the youngest of Lyall Howard's four sons.
The clearly fascist New Guard gets a mention in the DH Lawrence novel, ' Kangaroo'.
Jackboot John the Hangman Howard is more yr dingo.
"Although he was only 10, he has a clear recollection of the 1949 election campaign that brought Menzies to power. He recalls the elation of his parents on the night of the election [that ended the Chifley Labor government]. He spoke recently of a celebratory backyard bonfire to burn the rationing card. His [three] elder brothers, however, remember petrol rationing as more a nuisance than a hardship and recall the fun they used to have counting the coupons their father brought home.
"John's father, Lyall, was a proud patriot. There are family suspicions he was a member of the New Guard, the unofficial militia which prospered between the wars." Lyall Howard was laid off in the 1930s as a fitter and turner with CSR. He and his father, Walter, then bought the garage that would be the family's livelihood for 20 years.
And the New Guard "suspicions"? It hasn't come up since.
David Barnett's 1997 hagiography, John Howard, Prime Minister, makes no mention of Lyall Howard's membership of the short-lived fascist New Guard movement, with Captain Francis De Groot's legendary deed in slashing the opening ribbon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in March 1932 before the Labor premier Jack Lang could do so.
The National Archives website says of the New Guard: "It was formed in Sydney in February 1931. It stood for 'unswerving loyalty to the throne, sane and honourable government, suppression of any disloyal and immoral elements in government, industrial and social circles, [and] the full liberty of the individual'. At its height, the New Guard had 50,000 members. The movement was almost exclusively based in NSW, with its heaviest concentration in Sydney. It appealed to conservative returned servicemen who were strongly anti-communist and deeply suspicious of [the Lang Labor government]."
The New Guard was dead by 1935. So was the Lang government, by three years. All these years later you have to wonder how family influences shaped the youngest of Lyall Howard's four sons.
The clearly fascist New Guard gets a mention in the DH Lawrence novel, ' Kangaroo'.
Jackboot John the Hangman Howard is more yr dingo.
posted by professor rat at 7:28 AM
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