August 2009 - The Police Association Victoria

21
George Lawton Mayman – photo – Australian War Memorial negative number DAOD1702.
not initially include meeting
minutes, financial reports or
anything that might remotely be
considered political or controversial.
The secretary and nominal
journal editor was First Constable
G. Bunting, a clerk in the Russell
Street Superintendent’s Office.
Contributions to the journal were
collated by him and vetted by a
‘Journal Committee’.
The actual editor of the ‘new’
Journal from 1931 to 1937 was
George Lawton Mayman, a lawyer
and author, who as well as editing
the Law Institute Journal was a
member of the Police Practical
Examinations Board and a
law lecturer for Victoria Police
promotion examinations. A former
lieutenant in the AIF, who had
served in France and was wounded
in action during the First World
War, Mayman’s tenure as editor
ended with the controversial
resignation of Chief Commissioner
Thomas Blamey.
Following the departure of
Mayman the Association reverted to
the practice of engaging a serving
member as honorary journal editor
and the first such appointee was
Senior Constable Samuel James
Williams, V.B., who formed part of
a ‘ Journal Committee’ comprised
of five Association members.
He was followed by a succession of
honorary editors who were serving
police and who usually, but not
always, also filled the position
of secretary.
Apart from a brief publishing gap
in 1996, the break in publication
engineered by Blamey in 1931 is
the only time that publication
of the journal has been seriously
interrupted. And although the
‘new’ journal was effectively an
instrument of police command,
that management stranglehold
gradually dissipated following
Blamey’s departure and the journal
reverted to its original purpose
of being the official Association
news magazine.
In keeping with changed
readership expectations, the
journal over recent decades has
eschewed the publication of items
that an increasingly sophisticated
readership might regard as
offensive or twee. Long gone are the
published references to indigenous
Australians as ‘half-castes’ and
articles decrying moves towards
granting ‘equality to women’;
which were frequently accompanied
by sexist jokes. Little did the authors
of these missives know that one day
the Chief Commissioner and the
editor of the journal would both
be female.
There was a time when the
only journal space allocated to
women police carried the heading
‘Household Page’ and the by-line,
‘Conducted by Policewoman Smith’.
Contributed by Policewoman
Constable Lily Smith, the regular
column never mentioned police
work but was a collection of recipes
for such delights as ‘Strawberry
Bavarian Cream’.
Much to the chagrin of some
librarians and researchers the
journal has over the decades
undergone no fewer than nine
subtle name changes and changes
to volume series numbers and
paper sizes. But such considerations
have been of little relevance to
regular readers who have seen the
journal grow immeasurably in style
and content.
May 2008
TOO BIG,
TOO LOUD
TO IGNORE
ALSO INSIDE:
VOLUME 74 – ISSUE 5
www.tpav.org.au
Historic rally > thousands of police march on Parliament House > Resourcing woes in Geelong
A separation of the roles of secretary
and editor enabled the employment
of a suitably qualified civilian
editor: the first of these in 1996 was
Shirley Hardy-Rix, whose tenure as
editor is the longest in the history
of the journal. Improvements to
the journal in recent decades have
included the extensive use of full
colour images and an increased
focus on articles of particular
industrial relevance to the
Association and its members.
Now in the 91 st year of publication,
the journal has informed and
entertained readers through two
world wars, a police strike, Blamey’s
Association coup and a multitude
of other major events that have
impacted both positively and
adversely upon the activities of
the Association. In all respects ‘the
journal’ has more than fulfilled
the aspirations of its founders who
wanted ‘a newspaper of their own’.
Dr Robert Haldane
– Police Historian
PRINT POST APPROVED PP337586/00076
www.tpav.org.au The Police Association Journal August 2009