1910–1915
Lilian Stockton, 20, left Savige literally speechless. She was a blue-eyed beauty with wavy brown hair. She was a milliner by trade who always looked feminine in her own trend-setting designs, tilted not at a rakish angle but an alluring one. Cover-up, not exposure, was the order of the day, and there was an emphasis on the sensuality rather than sexuality of fashion, on colour and design rather than cleavage and shapely legs. In that era, a glimpse of pure white ankle was about it.
Lilian Stockton managed all this better than most. She was discreet and not a coquette. She was intelligent without being a political activist, and caring, with a warm and winning smile.
Her angelic voice, and the fact that she was singing praise to the God Savige also worshipped, only enhanced his attraction. Lilian would be uncomfortable with a lukewarm believer or atheist; Savige too would be only at ease in his private world alongside a strong follower of Jesus Christ.
Like his parents, he believed he should make the breaks in life for himself, but with the added dimension of aid from his God. He had prayed for guidance, a good job, the wellbeing of his family and the safety of his country, and now he sought the Lord’s assistance in deciding on a life partner.
When he overcame his mute appreciation, which took months, he began to speak to Lilian at church meetings. But she was not going to give him more than a hint that she had feelings for him too.
Gradually the circle around them diminished to a handful of friends who visited each other’s homes for Sunday-afternoon tea and lively sessions around the piano. After four months they were dating without friends or chaperones.
Their courtship was cautious, yet there was a passion between them that excluded all others. Lillian was happy with her good-looking, slightly gawky, physically fit, confident young man on the rise to somewhere. Savige felt the last piece of the puzzle of a long and happy life had been fitted into place.
Within two years they were talking about marriage. On New Year’s Day 1914, three years after meeting, they became engaged and planned to wed within 12 months. Stan Savige went down on his knees in thanks. But things would not work out quite as expected.
***
On 28 June, a gun-toting young Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, stepped from a curb near the River Miljacka in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. He fired two shots that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sofie. This action would trigger a chain reaction of political and military moves in Europe that threatened widespread armed conflict.
A month later Austria declared war on Serbia. Russia supported Serbia; Germany backed Austria; and France and Britain allied themselves with Russia. Messages were sent out to all parts of the British Empire, warning that war was imminent.
On 31 July, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher stunned a rally during an election speech when he said: ‘Should the worst happen . . . Australians will stand behind the mother country to help defend her to the last man and the last shilling.’1
This declaration from the leader of the Labor Party, which had not been in favour of aiding Britain in its imperial expansion, had the nation thinking sombrely. Former Liberal prime minister Joseph Cook followed it up a day later, saying just as succinctly: ‘If the old country is at war, so are we.’2
War was declared on 4 August. It was a surreal moment for Australia’s 4 million citizens, used to looking on events in far-off Europe with an interested yet jaundiced eye. It shook the Savige family. Stan retired from the 1st Prahran Senior Cadets with the rank of sergeant in June 1914, but he had many mates in uniform. He wanted more free time with Lilian, and his job was becoming more demanding.
Ann and Samuel were quick to counsel him not to enlist in the army. He had a good job and prospects. He had a responsibility to his fiancée. Ann had a heart condition and applied emotional blackmail to keep him from going. She reminded him that people like John Curtin were not in favour of seeing any Australian volunteer to fight, and were dead against any prospect of conscription. Samuel expressed the opinion that anyone who signed up to fight other people’s wars was a ‘damned fool’.
Lilian stayed out of the discussion, but noted her future husband’s reaction. He was community-oriented by nature and experience; on this occasion too he would surely act in what he saw as the nation’s best interests.
Other opinions were also having an impact on thoughtful people like Savige. Germany had a foothold in New Guinea and had designs on other parts of the Pacific.
One rational argument came from successful building engineer and lawyer John Monash, who had been in the militia for 33 years, and knew more about war and its history than most. He had received a white feather in the post from a Victorian parliamentarian for not joining the Australian expedition to the Boer War 15 years earlier; his response had been that he was not going to support ‘British Empire maintenance’.3
In 1914, he had a different perspective. He had been in army intelligence and travelled to Germany, and studied its production of weaponry and its war-preparedness. So he was more aware than most of the extent of German ambitions. Monash believed his parents’ mother country had to be defeated. Germany was effectively a military dictatorship, and his war would be about fighting for democracy and Australia’s freedom. He put the British Empire second. His further argument was that if France fell, the Germans would offer not to attack the UK, but instead would take its dominions, such as the mineral-rich Australia and Canada. That would kill democracy in those countries, and any others that capitulated to the German war machine.
Savige appreciated Monash’s points, but at this stage was more of an empire man. He and hundreds of thousands of others would heed the call to preserve the UK and its dominions.
Many of them would be signing up to escape humdrum lives. Few had been abroad before, and many saw joining up as the best chance they would ever have of seeing the world away from their homeland. They were unaware that they would be entering a war like no other in history.
Savige prevaricated, then ignored his father’s verbal abuse over the issue and heeded the advice from his fiancée, Lilian.
‘You have to listen to your heart and weigh it up with God,’ she said.
Savige’s heart was with his fiancée, who was showing more character and strength over this than his parents. Ringing in his ears were Jesus’ words in John 15:13: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’
***
Savige took his annual holidays in February 1915. He left his family and Lilian and went alone to the hills around Warburton, 45 miles east of Melbourne, for 10 days. He took two books: his trusty Bible, and an account of Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic expedition, a sterling tale of courage and sacrifice.
Savige’s fiancée was now the most important person in his life. She had given him confidence by leaving it to him to decide whether to enlist, and telling him that she would support any decision he made.
‘My biggest concern was Lilian,’ he later wrote. ‘I wanted so much to marry her. But if I did that, went to war and did not survive, I would have left a widow. I would be letting her down.’4
The mores of that period were complex. If a soldier died, a widow would sometimes remain faithful to him and never marry again. Savige hated the idea that he might commit his precious Lilian to such a lonely and sacrificial existence. On the other hand, if he did not marry her, he could have wasted years of her life in their relationship, during which she would have remained a virgin in keeping with her religious views.
By early May 1915, a week after the Anzac invasion of Turkey, he was reading about the less-than-successful attack on Gallipoli, and realised many of his mates who had taken the plunge a half-year earlier were probably in danger.
After much prayer and agonising, he decided to enlist as a volunteer.
He joined the long line of those waiting for a medical exam, and would later recall being ambivalent about coming through it with a clean bill of health. There was not much joy amongst the prospective soldiers, and he guessed from their laconic conversations that many felt much the same way as he did. They would attempt to do their best for Australia and the mother country. Yet they were not enthusiastic, apart from the concept of overseas travel. If rejected, most would be envious of their mates to a degree, but there would be little real pain.
The doctor ran his stethoscope over Savige’s lean, 175-centimetre, 66-kilogram frame, and nodded approvingly. He asked about Savige’s health generally. Savige had experienced few illnesses and was fit enough. He didn’t smoke or drink. He laughed when asked if he had ever had a sexually transmitted disease. Savige at 25 had no such experience, transmitted or otherwise. The doctor observed that he wore glasses, but also saw on his information sheet that he was a crack shot, with 20:20 vision.
‘Long-sighted?’ the doctor asked, while scribbling a note. Savige nodded, and the doctor said, ‘That will not impinge on your shooting skills until you are much older.’
Savige passed the test, and went to tell his parents, who he knew would disapprove.
His father was shaving in the bathroom when he arrived. Samuel’s razor hovered near his chin when he heard the news. He gave his son a contemptuous look and said, ‘I always thought you were a bit of an ass, but not such a damned fool to take that game on.’5 Then he carried on shaving.
This less-than-wholehearted endorsement was made worse by Ann’s reaction. She broke down in front of Stan and accused him of having no feeling for her heart condition.
His parents’ reactions had depressed Savige. Yet Lilian’s response to the news would be even more vital, for in effect his decision meant forsaking her for his country.
She held and kissed him gently when told and gave him her blessing, which only increased his love for her.
It also magnified the dreaded thought that after sailing away, he might never see her again.