Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Laffin, no date

Courtesy of the Laffin family and the Families and Friends of the First AIF

John Alfred Charles Laffin (1922–2000), author, was born on 21 September 1922 at Mosman, Sydney, eldest of three children of Victorian-born Charles George Edward John Laffin, private secretary, and his New South Wales-born wife, Nellie Alfreda, née Pike. Laffin’s parents had served in the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War as an infantry officer and nursing sister, respectively. This was something he took pride in, and which shaped his life. He grew up in various suburbs across semi-rural Sydney and was educated at Manly West Primary School (1927–33) and Intermediate High School, Parramatta (1934–37). At fifteen he transferred to night school and began working as a copy-boy for Smith’s Weekly, ‘the diggers’ paper.’ Having begun writing adventure fiction obsessively from the age of eight, he wrote short pieces for the Sydney Sun (winning numerous prizes), was first paid for publishing a nine-part fiction serial in the Argus in 1936, and in 1939 his work appeared in a British anthology of Australian fiction.

On 6 March 1941 Laffin enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force for service in the Second World War (boldly putting his age up by seven years). Three days after disembarking at Port Moresby on 4 December 1942, he was posted to the 2/31st Battalion, the history of which he would later write in Forever Forward (1994). He served briefly in Papua between November 1942 and March 1943, when he was evacuated sick, having seen little action. At the Presbyterian Church, Kogarah, on 6 October 1943, he married Hazelle Gloria Stonham, a typist, who had nursed him while convalescent and who supported his ambitions loyally until her death.

Medically discharged in September 1945, Laffin returned to journalism, writing pulp novels for Horwitz (mostly produced in five days for £100) under pseudonyms including John Stuart Milne and Dirk Sabre. He stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal for the seat of Dalley (including suburbs such as Balmain, Leichardt, and Glebe) in the 1951 Federal election. In the early 1950s he worked as a jobbing journalist, writing everything including astrology columns, true-confession stories, and editing a magazine for freelance writers. In 1956 he travelled to Australian battlefields in the Mediterranean, publishing Middle East Journey (1958). The venture gave him the impetus to become a freelance writer and move to Britain. There, from 1956 he pursued parallel careers as a teacher, journalist, author and, he claimed, a lecturer and an ‘Intelligence agent (unpaid)’ (Laffin 2000, 239) for Israel.

For the next forty years Laffin published dozens of mainly military history books. They included a series about national military experiences (of Germany, France, Scotland, the United States of America, and Australia) and vehemently pro-Israel books on conflict in the Middle East. He often returned to the Great War, though the title of his 1989 book on military leadership competency, British Butchers and Bunglers of World War One, indicates how his interpretation differed from many academic historians. A freelance journalist, he travelled extensively to world trouble spots. Insecure work, however, meant that he often turned out hastily written pastiches; his 1982 Fight for the Falklands! was arguably the weakest of his 130 books.

Persistent rumours circulated that Laffin had exaggerated his war experience, claims first investigated by the Australian army in the early 1970s which deemed him a ‘loudly self-trumpeting imposter’ (NAA B883). He variously described himself as a ‘commando,’ a decorated former officer, and a veteran of the Syria-Lebanon campaign (June–July 1941) and the Kokoda Trail. Representing himself as ‘Dr,’ he claimed several degrees and learned fellowships. Why, as an internationally successful author, he made these claims remains unclear.

Though an inveterate traveller, in about 1970 Laffin moved, first to Cusop, near Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, and later to Knighton, in houses full of books and artefacts. The Laffins returned to Australia in 1995, settling in Canberra, where he continued to write, almost exclusively on the Great War. Long a visitor of war cemeteries on behalf of bereaved families, he co-founded the Family and Friends of the First AIF (FFFAIF).

After Hazelle’s death in 1997 Laffin lived with Anny de Decker, a Flemish literary collaborator, dying in Canberra on 23 September 2000, shortly after the appearance of A Kind of Immortality. A nostalgic memoir of his childhood, it gave an uncorroborated version of his war service and details of his writing career until his arrival in Britain. At twelve he had resolved to write ‘twelve shelves of books’ (and marry Princess Elizabeth), achieving at least the first ambition abundantly. He was notable for supporting himself almost wholly by writing for his entire career, one of the very few Australian military historians known internationally. His son, Craig, and two daughters, Bronwen and Pierenne, survived him. To honour his contribution to military history, the FFFAIF named for him an annual memorial lecture, a history prize, and a travel scholarship (2005–08).