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Absent without leave : the private war of Private Stanley Livingston

Absent Without Leave follows three wide-eyed twenty-one-year olds from their enlistment at the Sydney showground in 1940 to disembarking in the Middle East before being plunged into jungle warfare in the Asia Pacific. Private Stanley Livingston and his two best mates, Roy Lonsdale and Gordon Oxman, would by the end of the war be brothers-in-law as well as brothers in arms as Stanley would marry Roy's sister Evelyn, while Gordon would marry Lily Livingston, Stanley's younger sister. Over the course of the war, these three young men would be court-martialled four times for abandoning their training units. They were not cowards, running from responsibility, rather they were deeply committed family men who ran to the service of their families. This was a more common occurrence than has ever really been reported before. Stanley's mother died just prior to the outbreak of WW2, and while in the midst of battle in the Middle East, Stanley received word of the sudden death of his father. Once back in Sydney, Pte Stanley Livingston skipped training camp to be with his younger sister Lily, who was deeply traumatised by the loss and had suffered a mental breakdown. After almost six months AWL, Stanley surrendered just in time to embark with his battalion to Milne Bay in New Guinea, where he was court-martialled in the field and pleaded guilty to all charges. He was fined twenty pounds before being plunged into the harrowing combat - with no jungle warfare training whatsoever. Illuminating, deeply moving and told with no shortage of humour, Absent Without Leave is part biography, part family memoir, and part of Australian history that is largely forgotten, because no one ever really talked about it. Until now.

Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date Res.
32320003451881 940.5412 LIV
Adult Non Fiction   Rutherford library . . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 393347 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 393347 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781743315828 (pbk.) :
Classification Number 940.5412 LIV
Author Livingston, Paul
Title Absent without leave : the private war of Private Stanley Livingston [BK]
Publisher Crows Nest, N.S.W. : : Allen & Unwin,, 2013.
Physical Description ill., ports. ;
Absent Without Leave follows three wide-eyed twenty-one-year olds from their enlistment at the Sydney showground in 1940 to disembarking in the Middle East before being plunged into jungle warfare in the Asia Pacific. Private Stanley Livingston and his two best mates, Roy Lonsdale and Gordon Oxman, would by the end of the war be brothers-in-law as well as brothers in arms as Stanley would marry Roy's sister Evelyn, while Gordon would marry Lily Livingston, Stanley's younger sister. Over the course of the war, these three young men would be court-martialled four times for abandoning their training units. They were not cowards, running from responsibility, rather they were deeply committed family men who ran to the service of their families. This was a more common occurrence than has ever really been reported before. Stanley's mother died just prior to the outbreak of WW2, and while in the midst of battle in the Middle East, Stanley received word of the sudden death of his father. Once back in Sydney, Pte Stanley Livingston skipped training camp to be with his younger sister Lily, who was deeply traumatised by the loss and had suffered a mental breakdown. After almost six months AWL, Stanley surrendered just in time to embark with his battalion to Milne Bay in New Guinea, where he was court-martialled in the field and pleaded guilty to all charges. He was fined twenty pounds before being plunged into the harrowing combat - with no jungle warfare training whatsoever. Illuminating, deeply moving and told with no shortage of humour, Absent Without Leave is part biography, part family memoir, and part of Australian history that is largely forgotten, because no one ever really talked about it. Until now.
Livingston family
Livingston, Stanley
Livingston, Paul
Livingston family
Livingston, Paul, -- 1956-
Subject World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Australian
Families -- Australia -- Biography
Soldiers -- Australia -- Biography
World War, 1939-1945 -- Australia
World War, 1939-1945 -- Australia -- Personal narratives
Comedians -- Australia -- Biography
Absence without leave -- Australia
Catalogue Information 393347 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 393347 Top of page .