Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Louis’s father, Wilhelm Frederick August was born in Germany in 1863 and came to Australia in the 1880’s. He moved to Peterborough in the mid-north of SA in 1922 as manager for Mr. Hoffman, a wine merchant. The area was the home town of his wife, Bertha Marie Koch. When first married, she lived in Nuriootpa but became a widow with two children, Martin and Helen Dallwitz. Wilhelm and Bertha subsequently married then had five sons, Ernest, Victor, Fred, Hugo and Louis who was born on the 1st May 1920.
Wilhelm (William) was renowned for his gardening abilities in beautifying the Peterborough township, including the lawns in the Main Street where the local band played. He initially hand-watered there before installing sprinklers. He later planted shrubs and trees for the Park and was the first to recognize that arsenic from the Railway yards was killing the trees on the local reserve, consequently suggesting the soil be replaced. During the war he and Bertha were generous and consistent workers for the thrift depot, undertaking such menial tasks as winding string and cutting used stamps from letters to recycle.
Louis attended the Peterborough Primary School, where, as well as academic work, he successfully learned to swim. He later attended the Peterborough Woodwork Centre where he gained his Grade I Certificate in 1933. As part of the ceremony, his drawings and practical work were on display. Like his parents, Louis was also very community minded. He was a member and secretary of TOC H, an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. TOC H was a newly formed organisation that worked for Christian Social order to help people affected, for example, by the horrific fires of 1939 in Echunga and Meadows in the Adelaide Hills. The group erecting sheds and fences. In their home town of Peterborough the members had saved the local hospital board and ratepayers about £300 by keeping the hospital painted, and regularly cutting the lawns. They also established and ran an efficient hospital library. Lou was one of five Peterborough young men, Ralph and Cecil Philp, Cliff Reich and Bill Reid who travelled to Tasmania in 1939 for three weeks to celebrate the achievements and goals of the group.
Post school, Lou worked at the thriving local Matthew’s Emporium, as did Eva Cummings from Dowd’s Hill as she waited to begin a nursing career. Lou was a member of the Citizen Military Forces, but with the outbreak of WWII he then enlisted in July of 1943 to become SX31520 in the 43rd Infantry. His older brother, Hugo also enlisted in January of 1944. As was common in many country towns, Eva wrote to many soldiers, including Lou, keeping their photos, but sadly not the letters, until her death. (Post war she married another local, Bryan Holmes, who served with the 2/48th battalion.) Each time he was given leave, Lou returned to Peterborough, often with close friend Private Ralph Philp. He also spent time with his married sister Helen Waller at Milang.
War inevitably is cruel. A good friend of Lou’s, Maxwell Robert (Bob) Walker from Burra was tragically killed in an aircraft accident in Mildura. Lou paid tribute to his friend in The Advertiser of August 1945: ‘In loving memory of my pal Bob, killed in aircraft accident, August 5. 1943. One of the best. Ever remembered by Lou Ehrke.’
Brother Hugo was in New Guinea when his peaceful encounter with Dyak head-hunters was featured in the News of November 1945. Private Hugh wrote to his fiancé, Madeline Draper from Tarakan: “We had four Dyak head-hunters in the tent, complete with big knives encased in elaborately carved sheaths, part of the decorations being tufts of human hair. They also carried their long blowpipes complete with pouch of poison darts. "These were some of the chaps who worked with our fellows. The Dyaks did a great job. Many Nip heads were sliced off and scores killed with poisoned darts.” Certainly no mincing of words in that report.
Lou was finally discharged on the 29 March 1946, to help celebrate Hugo’s engagement to Madeline Draper in July. He was also able to have almost seven months with his father, then in his 80’s before William died on the 23rd of October, 1946 and was buried in the Peterborough Cemetery, in the community he had served so well. Post war, Lou returned to work with Matthew’s Emporium, Peterborough, before accepted a position with John Martin in Adelaide, in October, 1947. A large number of his friends gathered at his home for a surprise party, and to make a presentation to their popular friend.
The move resulted in Lou meeting Dorothy McLeod of Brighton, with whom he became engaged in August of 1949 and later married. They welcomed their first son at the Glenelg Community Hospital on October 2nd 1952. Grandmother Bertha enjoyed this next generation for over a decade before she died on the 27th May 1968. Lou lived to be 77 years old, dying on the 27 March 1998. He is buried at Tanunda in the St John Lutheran cemetery. The town of Peterborough commemorates his service in the Main Street on their War Memorial.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, Daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133 and Eva Cummings.