John Laffin

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John Laffin
Born(1922-09-21)21 September 1922
Mosman, Sydney, Australia
Died23 September 2000(2000-09-23) (aged 78)
Canberra, Australia
OccupationMilitary historian
NationalityAustralian
GenreModern military history

John Laffin (21 September 1922 – 23 September 2000) was an Australian 20th century military historian.

Early life

John Alfred Charles Laffin was born on 21 September 1922 at

Mosman, Sydney, Australia.[1] Both of his parents had served with the British Imperial military forces in World War I, his father as a commissioned infantry officer, and his mother as a nurse.[2]

In the late 1930s Laffin was employed as a trainee journalist on the staff of

Wagga Wagga Advertiser. In 1941 he enlisted as a Private into the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, subsequently being commissioned as an officer and going on to see active service in the New Guinea campaign in World War II.[3]

Journalism, education and writing career

After the war, Laffin worked for a number of newspapers and magazines and began his own feature service and editing unit. In the mid-1950s he relocated with his family to the

novellas under the pseudonyms 'Carl Dekker' and 'Mark Napier', but without commercial success.[4]

In the early 1960s, while still working as a teacher, he began writing military histories, which after a few years sold well enough to allow him to abandon teaching and earn a living as a professional military historian and writer, as well as intermittent pieces of journalism in the field. Laffin was a prodigious author, producing works - many of which possessed a personally opinionated viewpoint of their subject matter - regularly for publication on a range of modern military history subjects, ranging from conflicts in the Middle East, the Falklands War, and several works on World War II, but the central subject that he returned to repeatedly throughout his career over the next 40 years was the British experience of World War I. He travelled extensively in Europe, especially along the old battlefields of World War I's Western Front.

In the field of World War I history he was trenchantly of "The Donkeys" school of thought on the subject of British Generalship, castigating the British Army High Command's conduct of military operations in the war as being wantonly profligate with the lives of its soldiers. His views, generally expressed in a choleric fashion, in this regard were detailed in his work British Butchers & Bunglers of World War One (1998), and he appeared in a

Field Marshal Earl Haig, entitled Haig: The Unknown Soldier (1996), proffering the same historical commentary.[5]

Laffin was the instigator behind the creation of the Australian Corps Memorial Park, at Le Hamel, France, dedicated to the Australian troops who served on the Western Front in World War I.[6] He also founded the Families & Friends of the 1st Australian Imperial Force, a society dedicated to maintaining the historical and cultural memory of the men of Australia's primary expeditionary force that fought in World War I.[7]

Death

Laffin returned to reside in Australia from the United Kingdom in failing health in 1995. He died in Canberra on 23 September 2000 at the age of 78.[8]

Personal life

While medically convalescing in Sydney in 1943 during World War II he met his future wife, Hazelle (died 1997), who was serving as a

Red Cross nurse.[9] "He returned to Australia in 1995 but Hazelle developed heart problems and died in early 1997. He is survived by his partner, Anny two daughters, Bronwen and Pirenne, and a son, Craig."[10]

Select bibliography

References

  1. ^ Biography of John Laffin, 'Austlit' website (2020). https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A44033?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy
  2. ^ "John Laffin". fffaif.org.au.
  3. ^ "John Laffin". fffaif.org.au.
  4. ^ Biography of John Laffin, 'Austlit' website (2020). https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A44033?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy
  5. ^ Entry in IMDb website for 'Haig: The Unknown Soldier'. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9390464/
  6. ^ Australian Corps Memorial Park information page, on 'The Great War.co.uk' website (2019). http://www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-le-hamel.htm
  7. ^ In memoriam page dedicated to Laffin on the Society's website (2019). http://fffaif.org.au/?page_id=27
  8. ^ Obituary for John Laffin, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Obituary%3A+John+Laffin+--+1922-2000.-a083477115
  9. ^ Laffin, John. On the Western Front: Soldiers Stories from France and Flanders, 1914–1918. Gloucester [Gloucestershire]: A. Sutton, 1985, dust jacket.
  10. ^ Obituary: John Laffin -- 1922-2000

External links

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