Call to service: The Register of Australian Accountants for National Service 1940–1944

Abstract

Purpose: The paper explores the creation in Australia of the Register of Accountants for National Service. Established at the outset of the Second World War, the Register operated for four years from June 1940 providing voluntary, non-remunerated, part-time and after-hours services to a highly stressed and seriously stretched federal government bureaucracy by members of the main Australian professional accounting bodies. Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Supply and Development and Munitions were the largest consumers of the services offered. Design/methodology/approach: The study of the Register relies mainly on an extensive archive of war-time documentation from the Federal Governme..