Stuart Coghill
Army, Musician - Blacksmith
Stuart grew up surrounded by stories of his grandfather who had fought in New Guinea during World War II.
“He was part of the group that constructed the famous Bulldog Road. A road longer, higher, steeper, wetter, colder and rougher than even Kokoda,” Stuart says with admiration.
“I had a huge respect for him and what he had done. I admired him and so did everyone else around him.”
Stuart was teaching adventure sports when he decided, at 21, to enlist.
“To do my bit. I felt that if I could do something, then I should.”
With a strong sense of adventure, military life also sounded appealing to him. His love of history, and particularly his own family history, connected him to the ethos of going off on a great adventure.
Unfortunately, early into his army career, Stuart was injured.
He was offered a choice of external courses to study, during his recuperation. However, most of these were physical and he was unable to face their rigours due to his injuries. Instead he chose to learn the bagpipes.
“There was always music in my life,” he says.
“I had musical experience and I thought it would be better than sitting and doing nothing, which was pretty much what my life was about at the time.”
As soon as he began, Stuart was a natural on the instrument, as he had been surrounded by music all his life. Everyone in his family had played an instrument at one point or another.
He worked hard at rehabilitation toward a medical upgrade and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2015.
“I was in the north, at Kabul, and it was almost a white Christmas. Everyone seemed to appreciate the joyful notes of the bagpipes and the songs I played,” he recalls of his Christmas in Afghanistan.
Stuart became a member of the 8th/9th Royal Australian Regiment Pipes and Drums band, where he played solo for the Chief of Army, as well as many other dignitaries. Later, he joined the reserves, 5th/6th Royal Victorian Regiment Pipes and Drums band, which is still part of his life.
“I had also been interested in metal work but never thought I’d do anything seriously with it,” Stuart recalls of his love of sculpture at school.
This interest led to blacksmithing, which Stuart taught himself through YouTube while he was in the army.
Upon leaving the military, Stuart was having problems with his memory and was diagnosed with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I struggled to find meaningful full-time work and blacksmithing was a useful way of spending my time as I searched. As people started seeing my work, they’d put in orders for things. It wasn’t my plan to start a business. Instead, it metamorphosed from a hobby into a job.” he says.
“I decided to be creative with what I produced. I make things like brass roses and fire pits and I do some restorations.”
Stuart is now coping well, despite life’s setbacks. Since leaving the service, many friends have lost their lives.
“I’ve had five friends suicide in the past five years. It doesn’t make sense.”
This, as well as Stuart’s own difficulties faced in the army, has led him to become very vocal about veterans’ health.
“You live under two sets of rules - military and civilian. In the army, you have constant anxiety about things like whether you have shaved today or ironed your collar properly. This kind of minor anxiety becomes a part of you after a while. But other negative things get added to that and the stress can build up and cause widespread and extreme long-term anxiety and depression. Also, you must face what the Infantry is required to do in a war zone. How do you deal with that, as a moral person?
“We went to Afghanistan to protect the people and we did it well. We had a duty of care to them. But I still have local friends there that I haven’t been able to help get out, since we left their country. I now have to dissociate from that. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be able to cope at all. People say that it takes a village to raise a child. I say that it takes a village to help someone deal with these kinds of things.”
Stuart’s ‘village’ has been his wife of two years as well as his local community where he regularly connects with veterans at his local RSL.
“Sometimes they just need a chat, or a drink or something non-military to take their minds off it. I can usually tell if I see someone struggling a bit with a lack of mateship.”
For himself, the focus that is required, as a passionate artisan and craftsman, helps settle his mind. Stuart has also gone back to full-time study in Conservation and Land Management, determined to work in preserving the Australian environment.
“I look at my life now and realise that I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
@thefoxholeblacksmith
@thefoxholeblacksmith
