Frank Anstey was one of the most significant opponents to conscription, both through his own efforts and through his role in mentoring others.

Frank Anstey was born in London in 1865 and arrived in Melbourne aged 11 as a stowaway. He was attracted to labour politics early and became President of the Tramways Employees Union in Victoria.

Anstey entered state parliament in 1902 and then Federal Parliament in 1910 as the Member for Bourke, the electorate that covered Brunswick and parts of Coburg. This photograph was taken in 1912, shortly before the beginning of World War One in 1914. Anstey was organising for Labor in the countryside, and became the most prominent spokesperson for rural interests within the party.

Anstey’s views were heavily influenced by socialism and he was opposed to World War One from its beginning. He regarded the War as being a conflict that only served the rich and powerful. This flowed through to his opposition to conscription. One argument that he made frequently was that he would only support conscription of men after the wealth of the capitalists had been conscripted. Not all of Anstey’s arguments were egalitarian - much of his work contained strong elements of racism, and in particular anti-semitism. He was strongly criticised at the time by other socialists for these depictions.

Frank Anstey was a significant mentor for both John Curtin and Frank Hyett, and to a lesser extent Maurice Blackburn. It was at the study circles held at Anstey’s house in Brunswick that opposition to conscription within the labour party was organised.

Frank Anstey remained in federal parliament until 1934. In that time he served as assistant leader for the Labor Party for five years, and was a minister in the Scullin Government. After the defeat of the Scullin Government, Anstey grew increasingly embittered and withdrawn, spending the rest of his life as a private individual. He died in 1940.

John Curtin would become the most famous of the labour activists from Brunswick and Coburg. This opponent of conscription in World War One would go on to become Prime Minister of Australia during World War Two.

John Curtin’s early life was one of hardship. His father’s ill health affected his ability to work. That and the 1890s depression reduced the family to poverty. By the time they settled in Brunswick in 1899, Curtin’s mother’s sewing provided the only income. Curtin left school at age 13 to help support the family.

Curtin nonetheless continued his education at the public library, and through participating in study circles in both the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Socialist Party. He soon became involved in political and union organising, serving as Secretary of the VSP, and in 1911 becoming Secretary of the Victorian Timber Workers Union.

It was as a trade unionist that Curtin first spoke out against the possibility of conscription being introduced. The increasing importance of this campaign, and the increasing difficulties that Curtin was facing within the Timber Workers’ Union led to Curtin stepping down from his position in September 1915. Shortly afterwards he was appointed National Secretary for the Trades Union Anti-Conscription Campaign.

Throughout 1916 Curtin campaigned tirelessly against conscription in this role. He was particularly effective as a writer and producer of campaign material. This effort took a toll on Curtin personally; throughout 1916 he struggled with both depression and alcoholism.

After the first conscription referendum was defeated in November 1916, and in recognition of his journalistic talents, Curtin was offered the editorship of the Westralian Worker paper. He moved out of Brunswick to Western Australia, which would remain his home for the rest of his life. This photograph was taken around the time of his move.

John Curtin would go on to represent Fremantle in federal parliament and eventually became Prime Minister during World War Two. In this role he introduced conscription for overseas service for Australians. Although this service was limited to a defined area – and so Curtin was able to argue that he was simply redefining what ‘Australian territory’ meant – it was nonetheless a significant personal and political decision. Unlike Hughes in World War One, Curtin was personally trusted by the union movement, and he proposed this policy respectfully, and as a consequence was able to persuade the unions and the Labor party to support him. John Curtin died in 1945 before the end of the war.

Frank Hyett was one of the most important labour activists in the anti-conscription campaigns. He was particularly prominent during the second referendum, after John Curtin had moved to Western Australia.

Frank Hyett was of a similar age to his friend John Curtin, being just three years older, and had a similar upbringing. When Hyett’s family moved to Brunswick and Coburg they were poor, and supported only by Hyett’s mother (Hyett’s father died while Frank was still a baby). Frank Hyett also left school early to find work, and was drawn into ALP and VSP politics through Frank Anstey’s study circle.

Hyett became an organiser for the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees in 1910, and soon after helped form the Victorian Railway Union, of which he was General Secretary. Hyett proved to be very successful in these roles. He achieved important industrial outcomes for his members, including the formation of a wages board by the railway service.

He also managed to make the VRU an important part of the anti-conscription campaign. Railway workers became significant fundraisers for the campaign, and the VRU newspaper an important vehicle for anti-conscription articles. The distribution of campaign materials by railway workers was particularly important, given the authorities' attempts to censor and seize such material.

The Victorian Trades Hall was one of the major organisations to oppose conscription, and Hyett had a prominent role on the Council. Through these trade union positions and following John Curtin’s departure to Western Australia, Frank Hyett became one of the most important organisers for the anti-conscription campaign in Victoria, especially during campaigning on the 1917 Conscription Referendum.

Frank Hyett died suddenly after the war in 1919 as a consequence of the 1918-19 Spanish Influenza global pandemic that spread from the military staging camps and claimed some 50 million lives worldwide. Over 5000 people attended his funeral. When his funeral train passed Glenferrie Oval a football match was in progress. The game spontaneously stopped while all at the ground stood in respect for the popular railways unionist, activist and sportsman.

Maurice Blackburn played a significant role within the ALP to ensure that the party remained opposed to Prime Minister Hughes’ policy of conscription. Without the work of Blackburn, it is possible that conscription could have been introduced without a referendum.

Maurice Blackburn, like Curtin and Hyett, had been active in the Victorian Socialist Party as well as the ALP. In 1914, Blackburn was elected to the Victorian State parliament to represent the division of Essendon, which at the time included parts of what is now Coburg, although he lost this seat in 1917.

While Blackburn took an active public role in the anti-conscription campaign, it was his activity within the Labor Party that was even more significant. Blackburn proposed, successfully, a motion to the state conference calling on Labor members of parliament to pledge themeselves against conscription. This was then done at the NSW Labor conference as well, and by the time Prime Minister Billy Hughes returned to Australia in July 1916, having decided to introduce conscription while visiting the United Kingdom, a majority of the parliamentary party had pledged themselves against the policy.

Nonetheless Hughes travelled around the country attempting to persuade each state to support conscription. After the Victorian and New South Wales state conferences, Blackburn and Senator Myles Ferricks from Queensland went to South Australia to argue the case against conscription. Although they were not allowed to speak at the meeting, their influence behind the scenes was instrumental in the Adelaide Labor Conference joining Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in opposing conscription. With only the Western Australian and Tasmanian branches supporting him, Hughes was unable to change his party’s policy and was forced to put conscription to a referendum.

Blackburn remained a lifelong opponent of conscription. In 1934, he succeeded Frank Anstey as the member for Bourke, the federal seat covering Brunswick and parts of Coburg. When conscription for overseas service during World War Two was proposed in 1943 by the ALP government, Blackburn was the only member of parliament to vote against it. As a result of opposing the Labor government he was disendorsed, and lost his seat at the election later in the year. He died shortly afterwards in 1944.

In 1946, Blackburn’s widow Doris won the seat as an Independent Labor Member, and held it for a single term. Doris had been initially a member of Vida Goldstein’s Womens’ Political Association but grew estranged from it in 1915. Instead she put her energies into the Sisterhood for International Peace. Doris was a vigorous lifelong activist for peace, international and Indigenous Australian causes. Doris Blackburn died in 1970.