A Salvation Army officer accused of physically and sexually abusing dozens of young boys at a boys' home in south Sydney was given the army's silver star award at a function late last year, despite the allegations against him.

The organisation later celebrated the award in the January edition of its national magazine, on the eve of royal commission hearings that were told details of the horrific acts of abuse he and his colleagues allegedly had perpetrated. Major John McIver was awarded the silver star on December 1 by Commissioner Jan Condon in recognition of the fact that his two sons had become commissioned officers. All parents of officers in the Salvos are given the award, which ''recognises the influence of parents, and significant family and friends, on the lives of their officer children''.

''Insensitive'': John and Hazel McIver receiving their award.

Major McIver's award was then given special mention in the army's Pipeline magazine, which published a picture of him and his wife receiving the award and noting that the head of the army's eastern territory, Commissioner Condon, had attended the ceremony. The picture story was later quietly removed from the Salvation Army's website.

''It is incomprehensible to me how they could give someone an award who they knew had so many allegations of cruel and brutal treatment of children against him,'' the executive officer of abuse survivors group Care Leavers Australia Network, Leonie Sheedy, said.