Charlie Parkinson and Mark Nicholson have had a long-term association with The Friends School. They’ve been parents and teachers, but back in the late 1960s they were students. At that time, not only was the Vietnam war waging, but there was a federal policy of conscription – which meant that for Charlie and Mark it was personal – they soon could be compelled to go and fight in the war. 

At the time Charlie was the chair of the Student Council and both had a strong sense of responsibility.  For both, this meant taking responsibility for challenging a perceived injustice – particularly one that might send them to war.

The Vietnam war grew increasingly unpopular within Australian society, and protest marches against conscription, known as ‘moratorium’ marches  were the biggest street protests Australia had ever seen[1].

While there was massive social change happening through the 1960s, Charlie and Mark reflect on how deeply conservative the school culture was at that time. Corporal punishment was routinely practiced (albeit behind the principal’s back), prefects handed out and ran detention, and prefects and teachers alike enforced the strictest of uniform policies (which included what color underwear girls were allowed to wear!).  The mood in Tasmania at the time was more in support of the conservative past than the broad social changes happening. The community around the school was largely in support of the war, so much so that to be opposed to it was to be labelled a communist.

Charlie and Mark say they were in a tiny minority of students who were against the war – they estimate only 6 out of 200 students opposed the war. While they guess that a few younger staff were on their side, they weren’t doing it openly. Charlie and Mark reflect that two Quaker staff at the school, Richard Meredith and Helen (nickname Tad) Walpole were clear exceptions, both actively involved in the marches against conscription.

The marches were held during weekdays, and started at the University nearby.  So, when Mark and Charlie joined the marches, they and a handful of other students left school at lunchtime and joined the marches in their uniforms. Mark said he wanted to march in school uniform as he was at a ‘school which professes nonviolence’ – he saw marching against conscription to be something that was deeply consistent with the Quaker values.   Since the march was covered on television, there was no hiding that students from Friends School had been at the protests, sometimes as a speaker.  

Charlie remembers returning to school after speaking at the march and ‘all hell broke loose’.  It was clear they’d outraged several staff, and ‘they copped a lot of flak’. Mark and Charlie remember the pressure from staff for them to be punished for attending the marches, and the snide comments that surrounded them. Charlie and Mark remember walking into classrooms with their Vietnam moratorium badges and many teachers telling them to take off the badge or leave the class.

They recall that the school decided to discuss the war for Grades 11 and 12. They remember boys getting up in that discussion saying things like ‘I can’t wait to turn 18 and can go over and knock over those gooks’, with response from staff ‘oh well, they’re entitled to their views’. They remember there was one girl from our class who got up and said ‘I don’t know anything about politics but I know that I couldn’t look someone in the eye and kill them’, and she got jeered in this meeting. Mark and Charlie remain appalled that staff didn’t interfere at all in this process.

[1] https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/vietnam-moratoriums

But Mark and Charlie and others who also marched, were never formally reprimanded.  They can only imagine that it was their Quaker connections, and implicit support from the Principal Bill Oats that meant that while they were marginalised, they never received formal punishment for their participation in anti-war activities.

Mark and Charlie were deeply disappointed that the school didn’t take a more active stance against the war and in support of students and staff who joined the protest movements. However, they also remember that the Hobart Quaker meeting also didn’t take a stand against the war, and the broader community pressures for the School to not take a stand would have also been substantial.

After Charlie and Mark finished school they shared a house and continued to be involved in working against the war. Their home was a safe harbour for conscientious objectors who were seeking to avoid being imprisoned for their stance.

Mark and Charlie are grateful for the changes that have happened in Tasmania generally, but in the school more specifically, which mean that Friends School has become a place where people are much more likely to be able to bring their full selves as well as openly participate in protests consistent with Quaker testimonies, even when they go against the grain of the community around them.

Jessica Morrison, the Quaker Peaceworker spent a week in residence at The Quaker School.  While there, she had a chance to catch up with Charlie Parkinson and Mark Nicholson, well known and loved figures at the school. It was during this time that she heard this really interesting snippet of their, and our, history.