Obituary: Brigadier Thomas Parslow RFD, ED, QC

His Military Service to Australia

Brigadier Tom had many titles and civil academic awards for his many achievements.  His military awards were for either long, meritorious service or actual service. He reached the first level of general officer rank. At one time the Australian Army title for his rank was “Brigadier General” and in fact it still is that in the US Army and US Marines Corps. He loved to say that his ED  (EFFICIENCY DECORATION) was for  “20 years undetected crime as an officer”. However in his own words in his private autobiography he wrote:¹

The other badge he took great pride in was his RSL badge, which he always wore on his suit. He was the president of the Sandgate Sub Branch, and the military history display which he established led the Commander of the First Military District Brigadier (later Major General) Peter Phillips MC to invite him to chair a Victoria Barracks museum, of which I had the honour to serve at one time as his Vice President. He guided this group through difficult times.

Likewise as he rose from a lowly clerk in the Maryborough Courthouse to Solicitor General and consequently the most senior barrister on the Roll in 1972, he similarly rose from a private soldier on the parade ground to a brigadier, acting deputy divisional commander. His military career peaked in the Army Reserve when his full time job was the onerous office of Solicitor General for Queensland. His intermediate jobs and military appointments were also what many men would have regarded a good career pinnacle. A monumental effort considering that both ultimate jobs were at the peak of the pyramid. Indeed a Rigby cartoon in the Telegraph upon his appointment as SG showed a general in uniform and robes reviewing a parade of barristers…Rigby had been a gunner in WW2. Brigadier Tom had Rigby’s original in his study.

He drew on his military experience in his role as a barrister quite often. He told me he likened a heavy criminal trial to have the same strain and pressure that he experienced in a platoon attack. Indeed when he and the late Justice George Lucas planned the Bar Practice Course at the QUT for potential baby barristers they modelled the course on a direct entry Officers “Knives and Forks” Course so at least they would know how to do their job in the transition from student at law or solicitor to practice at the Bar.²

Brigadier Tom joined the Militia in 47 Battalion at Maryborough in the beginning of 1940; he was soon commissioned as a lieutenant. At one stage he qualified in infantry anti tank tactics with 2 -pdr guns being trained by 101 Tank Attack Regiment RAA. Later in the war the infantry took over the 2-pdr s and Lt Tom had to demonstrate the use. He fired 4 rounds off and smote down a tree with a dexterity that the senior officers admired. When packing up he found the axe, which one of his sergeants had used to “prepare” the tree with a few cuts, was missing, they eventually found the axe  after a lot of effort…axes had to be meticulously accounted.³

On another occasion he found out that there were rare fresh rations including fruitcake available from LST’s when his unit was on the Butibon River in New Guinea. He told his CO. As his battalion was on bully beef and biscuits the QM was sent down to draw fresh rations, but was told politely to come back next month as the unit had drawn its month’s rations. A mystery 10-wheel truck driven by an officer who smoked a pipe arrived at the ration point with an impeccably correct requisition. The identity of the persons involved was never found. In his memoirs Brigadier Tom said that many people knew what was going on and there was tight-knit solidarity. He had a lot of trouble driving a left-handed drive truck for the first time.

During another course in WW2 he was in a group who were demonstrated a prototype .45 calibre Sub Machine Gun by Evelyn Owen, it was an early Owen Gun which later had a production calibre of 9mm. He was in Townsville for a while early in the war but then went on to New Guinea where he saw extensive service as a platoon commander. It was in New Guinea he first smoked his trademark pipe⁴. He had asked his father-in-law for a pipe and was sent a supply of tobacco in a tin with a small GBD silver mounted pipe. This later saved his life when it was in his shirt pocket and stopped a Japanese bullet and he once remarked:

His active service was not only in World War Two but benignly in the Vietnam War. He like many CMF (Reserve) officers were sent for a two week observer stint, for which he later received a further active service gong. He remarked to me that he wished he’d earned his Pacific Star as easily as that one.

After World War Two he married his beloved Margaret in 1946. Like many returned solders he married in uniform whilst awaiting discharge. As part of his resettlement he enrolled in the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland to read for an LLB. Thus there is a direct link between his legal and military careers. In 1948 he joined the newly formed Citizens Military Forces and in 1949 was promoted a captain in infantry. In 1956 the Queensland University Regiment was raised to battalion status and Brigadier Tom was appointed to command as a lieutenant colonel, a post which he held until 1959. That did not end his association with QUR however because in 1976 he had the privilege of being QUR’s Honorary Colonel until 1980.

In the mid 1960’s he was 2 IC of the 1st Pentropic Battalion. This was an experiment in formational use of infantry, and also the other Corps using a US model. I Bn was under the command of a full colonel. After three years he was promoted to full colonel, as Commander 2 Support Group, which was a logistical, command encompassing Engineers. Ordnance, Army Service Corps, Medical, Intelligence, WRAACS, Dental and Field Hygiene. He was proud of the very great achievement that the medical units under his command set up and manned “ the very fine Australian Military Hospital in Vietnam”.⁶

In 1972 he was appointed as Commander 7 Task Force and promoted to the rank of brigadier.  He was later appointed as acting Deputy Divisional Commander I division, and retired in that office in 1975.

I mentioned his service to the RSL. Not surprisingly he held high office in that organization, being a South East District’s Counsellor and a State Counsellor for many years. As well as Sandgate Sub Branch President, he was president of the Club and pulled that club out of a massive debt and on to a very good profit.

I valued his guidance and friendship greatly. He moved my admission and loaned me his wig until I acquired one myself. We spoke often. His mind was always as sharp as a tack.

Like many of his military peer group he studied Confederate Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley campaign ad nauseum and General Jackson’s last words as he was dying from pneumonia were:

Brigadier Thomas Parslow RFD, ED**, QC soldier, lawyer and advisor to statesmen, has crossed over the river and is now resting under the shade of the trees.

As he often said at his RSL functions, “LEST WE FORGET”.

Joel M Barnett

Barrister at Law

Trustee, 9^th Battalions War Memorial Museum Collection and Property Trust

Presented Friday 29^th Day of May 2009 at Cannon and Cripps Chapel,

Kelvin Grove Road,

Kelvin Grove, Brisbane.

Footnotes

1. Parslow, Thomas  “ Parslow Soldier and Lawyer, an autobiography” Self published 2nd ed p.181
2. Private discussions 1996
3. ibid p154
4. He would in later life go to a conference with up to 8 pipes packed with tobacco in his briefcase.
5. Private discussions with Brigadier Parslow
6. Parslow opcit p211