By June 1916 in Australia, stories abounded of unscrupulous hussies marrying men about to be sent to the front, not for love but for money. The hussies were said to have designs on their husbands' pay. Better still, they were hoping to reap rewards of widows' pensions when their husbands were killed. Some hussies were said to be resorting to polygamy to maximise their incomes.
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"Celia" of Table Talk told the story 100 years ago this week of how "A well known public man was seeing his soldier son off recently".
"And as the transport pulled away from the pier the demonstrative grief of the wife of one of the soldiers attracted his sympathetic attention.
At that moment a policeman approached her and in a decidedly rough manner ordered the woman to 'Clear out of this or I'll fling you off the wharf!' and hustled her away. Naturally, keen resentment began to stir in the J.P. at the idea of a soldier's grieving relative being so inconsiderately treated. He felt it his duty to protest. But before he could do so, the constable approached him and explained: 'That woman has been down at nearly every troopship lately saying goodbye to a new husband every time, and pretending to have hysterics at parting with him. I suppose she is doing well collecting their pay.' "
"Naturally, this put a different aspect on the matter. I believe it is really a fact that in some cases one woman is drawing the pay of more than one soldier."
