Leslie Oswald (Les) KERLIN

KERLIN, Leslie Oswald

Service Number: 977
Enlisted: 20 April 1915, Place of Enlistment, Brisbane, Queensland.
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd Light Horse Regiment
Born: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 9 September 1895
Home Town: Ipswich, Queensland
Schooling: Ipswich Grammar School , Queensland, Australia
Occupation: Clerk
Died: Coronary Occlusion. , Brisbane, Queensland Australia, 8 July 1962, aged 66 years
Cemetery: Albany Creek Memorial Park-Cemetery & Crematorium, Queensland
Wall 3, Section 13.
Memorials: Ipswich Soldier's Memorial Hall Great War
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

20 Apr 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 977, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Place of Enlistment, Brisbane, Queensland.
22 May 1915: Involvement Private, 977, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '1' embarkation_place: Newcastle embarkation_ship: HMAT Malakuta embarkation_ship_number: A57 public_note: ''
22 May 1915: Embarked Private, 977, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Malakuta, Newcastle
8 May 1916: Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Medically unfit, Diagonised with Filariasis. Transferred to AIF Home Service Company, Queensland Rifle Range Camp.
28 Jan 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 977

World War 2 Service

18 Mar 1942: Enlisted

Leslie Oswald Kerlin.

Working as a clerk in Ipswich, 19 year old Private Leslie Oswald Kerlin enlisted in the AIF on 20 April 1915 to join the 2nd Light Horse Regiment as a Signaller. He was born in Ipswich on 9 September 1895, the second of six children belonging to William Kerlin and Magdalene Harrison. He left the Enoggera Barracks on May 18 and travelled by train to Newcastle departing on the “Malakuta” loaded with livestock and horses bound for Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. In mid-September he was admitted to a field hospital with dysentery and subsequently transferred to hospitals in Malta and Oxford, UK. He was finally diagnosed with Filariasis, declared medically unfit for further active service and repatriated home to Queensland on the Themistocles on 8 May 1916. On 25 August 1916, Les transferred to the AIF’s Home Service Company at Queensland’s Rifle Range Camp and was discharged on 28 January 1919. Throughout his service, he filed reports of his wartime experiences with the Queensland Times, where his uncle George Harrison was for 25 years a lead writer and sub-editor. Today, they paint a vivid picture of the path followed by fellow soldiers as published on this page on Friday. After the War, Les was appointed Secretary of the Repatriation Executive, Maryborough moving to Repatriation Headquarters in August 1920. He worked there for several years before involving himself full time in radio electronics and in 1922, became Secretary of the Wireless Institute of Australia (Queensland). His expertise in the field would lead him to invent the first electronic scoreboards installed in 1952 at the Milton Tennis Courts and B.A.T.C. Doomben. On 30 March 1929, Les married Amanda and Adolf Volmer Hansen’s youngest child, Amanda Petra (Girlie) and they were blessed with two sons, John and David. Sadly, his life was cut short by cardiovascular disease on 8 July 1962, followed thirteen years later by Girlie.
With Thanks to the Giesemann Descendants of Australia.

Read more...

Logan Village Museum

WW11 Service No Q15536

Logan Village Museum

Leslie was born 9 September 1895 in Brisbane to William john and Magdalene nee Harrison.
He died in 1962 in Brisbane.
He married Amanda Petra Hansen about 1928.
He is listed with the ANZACS of our area as his mother was of the Pioneering Family of Harrison.
Any further information would be greatly appreciated.

Showing 3 of 3 stories