Back from holidays (thank you Perth and Carrickalinga), and I've flung myself into some preparations for my PhD topic, the New Guard. To start, I am making a list of all known members... and the 5th person I put on it already sent me down the rabbit hole that is this thread.
Now, to start, I guess I should quickly explain what the New Guard is. Essentially, they were a fascist paramilitary group based in NSW during the 1930s. Led by the erratic Eric Campbell, the group rose to prominence in opposition of the ever-controversial Premier, Jack Lang.
The rabbit hole then started as I searched through Wikipedia to see the names that came up. Obviously, these names won't be entirely accurate, especially for such a niche group, but it provided a good base. And a few names did appear for the Centre Movement/Party, the New Guard's 'political party'. Running in the 1935 NSW state election, it achieved no real results and was essentially the last death rattle of the already terminal group. Now, while I can't say that all members of the Centre Party were New Guardsmen, as it wasn't an official party arm, I doubt many were exclusive to only it. In any case, I, as a 'good student' of history, did my due diligence and checked newspapers from the time to ensure these members, candidates for the 1935 election, were actually part of the Party. And for 4 of them, including Campbell, there were no issues. But, of course, it's never that simple.
One, an Aubrey Frederick Carlile Murphy, stood out. Now, the official NSW parliament site, which contains all information for state electoral nominations and elections, and is run by none other then Antony Green, notes Murphy as a Centre Movement member. Case closed, right?
Except it wasn't. Many newspapers discussing nominations for the 1935 election, such as the 18/04/35 edition of 'The Sun', presented Murphy, running for Concord, as an Independent. Now, one might that it could be an error, these newspapers simply linked a minor party as being Independents.
But, as you can see from the image above, other candidates such as Enoch [E.] Jones, running for Arncliffe, were presented as Centre Movement members. And this is present across multiple papers, by a tiny few which do make the mistake of labelling the Centre Movement as Independents.
So now I've got an issue. The NSW parliament site says Murphy is a Centre Movement candidate while the newspapers of the time say he isn't. I could've left it here, Murphy isn't that relevant to the story of the New Guard. I instead let myself be swallowed by the rabbit hole.
I do abit more digging and find that Murphy, had, in 1932, actually put himself forward to run for the UAP in that seat back in that year's state election, though was obviously not nominated in the end. Does this mean he wasn't a New Guardsman? Hard to tell, but it does show his changing of sides. I would soon after stumble into a pretty clear indicator that Murphy had no connection to the Centre Party. A campaign ad for the party, in the 05/05/35 edition of 'Truth', would note only 4 candidates as part of the party. Campbell, Jones, J.B.Fowler, and F.F.Munro, no Murphy.
There is another rabbit hole that image provides, mainly in trying to figure out who G.F.Pearce is, as, while being the campaign director, he only appears twice more in newspapers and no where else. The well-known George Foster Pearce is active at this time, but its certainly not him.
Diversionary rabbit hole aside, the ad is a pretty good piece of evidence that Murphy wasn't a member of the Centre Movement. But I still couldn't be certain, maybe the party just didn't have room to add his name. So I kept digging, certain something would appear. And it did. The final piece of the puzzle, the smoking gun if you will, was a tiny article, tucked away in the 22/04/35 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. Plainly titled "Concord Electorate", it put the entire mystery to bed. In it, Murphy himself directly refutes being a member of the Centre Movement.
The smoking gun is quite clear. Murphy, likely seeing previous articles labeling him as a member of the Centre Movement, refuted such claims and directly stated his Independent status. I could strike him off the list...
Two questions remain though.
1) Why did newspapers label him as a member of the Centre Movement in the first place? The Movement itself seemingly never claims him, so was it just miscommunication or a mistake?
2) What source was used on the NSW parliament's site to have him labelled as a Centre Movement candidate there?
These are questions, so far removed from my topic, that I shouldn't really keep digging for their answers. And yet, I am certain they're out there. I won't find them today, but maybe another day. In any case Murphy was an Independent, and likely never a New Guardsmen.
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