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Talk:Australian Legion of Ex-Servicemen and Women

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Dubious claim

[edit]

The RSL service membership criteria includes:

  • Has served in any of the Australian defence forces in any conflict
  • Has served not less than 6 months in the Regular or Reserve Australian Defence Force
  • Has completed a period of National Service in the Australian Defence Force
  • Has served in the Defence Forces of any country that is a part of the Commonwealth
  • Has served in the Defence Forces of the United States of America
  • Is an Australian citizen and has served in the defence force of any country allied to Australia

I have a couple of questions. Firstly is this the RSL membership criteria in 1944 when this org was set up now. I wasn't aware this org still existed? Peacemaker67 (send... over) 12:12, 16 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Good questions mate - not sure. The source is as at 2008, perhaps its changed since then? Anotherclown (talk) 01:20, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've had a quick look online and it seems the Legion doesn't have much of an official internet presence, although a google search brings up numerous references to it. Nothing readily available to clear up your questions that I can see though. The newsletters / journals of the state branches appear to be available at a number of state libries, and they still appear to active as far as I can tell. Unfortunately I don't really have to time to go into this depth of research though. My gut feeling is the source is out of date re the RSL so I have just removed it. Thoughts? Anotherclown (talk) 01:49, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds fair. I'm assuming that it was created as an alternative to the RSL when the RSL had very strict rules about being "returned". They might exist in the eastern states, but not where I am. Peacemaker67 (send... over) 04:00, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hi everyone, I am new to Wikipedia editing and only started due to being the FINAL State President of the Australian Legion of Ex-Servicemen & Women (NSW) and wanting to record its history before archiving Minute Books etc back to 1942 - and because celebrating the Legion's history is a commitment of RSL NSW upon our merger (27 Sep 2022) and how can they do that when our history isn't recorded... Regarding RSL membership criteria, its original manifestations RSSILA and RSSAILA were indeed "returned Active Service veterans only" and even Korean "UN Police Action" veterans were denied entry along with uniformed personnel that didn't deploy to war zones in other eras. Reforms in the 1980s led to RSL formally changing its name in 1990 from "Returned Services League" to the "Returned AND Services League" and formally accepting all personnel who served in the armed forces regardless of how, when and where they served. The purpose of my reference was to show the reason why the Legion was created (and its founding merger partner, the Demobilised Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen Assoc of Australia whose non-deployed members were rejected by RSL in WW1 and WW2. Happy to answer or discuss other questions. Wikipedia isn't the best place to record hisotry but, hey, what else can you do... Gary Bigg, Final State President of NSW Branch upon merger with RSL NSW. Legion NSW President 2023 (talk) 03:22, 29 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]