Returned and Services League of Australia
The Returned and Services League of Australia, known as RSL, RSL Australia and RSLA, is an independent support organisation for people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force.
Abbreviation
RSL
16 June 1916
ACN 008 488 097
147,671[1]
Phil Winter
- 1916: Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia
- 1940: Returned Sailors', Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia
- 1965: Returned Services League of Australia (to 1990).
The League conducts a diverse range of programs and initiatives to serve its current membership and the next generation of veterans and their families. In 2022, it reported:[1]
Influence[edit]
The influence of the League derives from its founding days organising rituals for ANZAC Day dawn services and marches, and Remembrance Day commemorations. In addition to pressing for benefits for veterans, the organisation entered other areas of political debate. The RSL was politically conservative,[8][9] Anglophilic, and monarchist.[10]
In the 1970s and 1980s, many defence force personnel, including veterans of the Vietnam War, found the RSL – whose members had predominantly served in the Second World War – generally unwelcoming and disdaining of their service.[11] Since the turn of the century, with the number of Second World War veterans in the RSL dwindling, Vietnam veterans and their contemporaries, along with ex-servicemen's wives, have become mainstays of the League.[2]
The focus of the RSL has been on the welfare of Australian men and women who have served in the armed forces. It has advocated for veterans' entitlements and the protection of former battlefields. Usually RSL members ensure that those who have served their country are commemorated by notifying funeral information and handing out poppies at the funeral.[12]
Symbolism[edit]
The League's badge is a symbol of readiness at all times to render service to the country and to former comrades. No wealth or influence can purchase the RSL badge which may be worn only by those who are members.[4] [note 3] The shield is symbolic of the protection which the RSL gives to its members, their dependents, and widows/widowers and orphans of those who paid the supreme sacrifice.[4] At the top of the badge is a crown, signifying allegiance to the Crown. Below the crown are the national flowers of Australia, Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland: the wattle, leek, rose, thistle, and shamrock. In the centre of the badge are a sailor, soldier, airman and service woman marching with their arms linked, symbolising friendship and the unity of all services and all ranks in comradeship. The red of the badge symbolises the blood ties of war. The white background stands for the purity of motive and the rendering of service without personal gain. The blue is a symbol of willingness to render service to a comrade anywhere under the sky.[13]
Other commercial activities[edit]
RSL Care[edit]
The first RSL home for ex-servicemen was established in 1938. The affiliated organisation, which became RSL Care, had 26 facilities in 2011. Following a merger with the Royal District Nursing Service in Victoria, in 2016 it became RSL Care RDNS Limited, an Australian public company registered as a charity, trading as Bolton Clarke. With more than 28 retirement communities throughout Queensland and New South Wales and several others in development, it was one of Australia's largest providers of retirement living and aged care services.[30][31]
RSL Cabs[edit]
Operating under a co-operative structure, in 1946 a group of returned servicemen established RSL Ex-Servicemen's Cabs & Co-Operative Members Limited to provide taxi services to Sydney. By the 1950s, the co-operative had expanded to more than 60 drivers.[32] As of 2021 it operated on a commercial basis in which drivers were not required to be members of the League.
RSL Art Union[edit]
Commenced in Queensland in 1956, the RSL Art Union is a lottery that raises funds to provide welfare services to ex-service men and women, their dependents and to other members of the community. A major prize of a luxury waterfront home on Queensland's Gold Coast is usually offered, together with a range of bonus prizes. As of 2011, the RSL Art Union had provided since its inception A$80 million in prizes and had raised more than A$70 million for development and maintenance of RSL nursing homes, hospitals and centres, and retirement complexes for elderly people.[33]