Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Julius Kayser was born in Lyndoch, South Australia, in 1877. He was the third youngest of ten children to Johan and Cacille Kayser, who had emigrated from Hannover in Germany in the 1850s. The family lived in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, with many other German migrant families. Like his father, Julius Kayser became a school teacher at the Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, and was the commanding officer of the C Company, 76th Infantry Regiment, Citizen Military Forces in the years before the First World War. He married Helen Hopewell in 1904, and the couple had three children: Edward, Ella, and Gordon.

Julius Kayser was among the first Australians to enlist in the AIF in August 1914. As an experienced soldier with the 76th Regiment, he was appointed lieutenant and left Australia for Egypt with the 12th Battalion in September. He was among the first wave of troops to land on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front-line positions at Anzac in the region of Russell’s Top, during which time he was promoted to captain.

The fighting took its toll, however, and after a costly, if unsuccessful, Turkish counter-attack in May, Captain Kayser was evacuated to Malta with a bout of dysentery and suffering a nervous breakdown. He was sent to hospital in London; where he was found to be unfit for general service. He returned home and spent the next six months with his family in Australia.

By mid-1916 Kayser had evidently sufficiently recovered, because in June he returned to the 12th Battalion, then fighting in France. The battalion attacked the village of Pozières, and on 23 July Captain Kayser was severely wounded in the leg, resulting in his evacuation to England. Kayser spent the remainder of the year in England, returning to the front in January 1917. Now promoted to major, he again reunited with the 12th Battalion in the relatively quiet sector at Glencourt Abbey, near Gueudecourt.

On 16 February 1917 German troops bombarded the Australian positions occupied by the 12th Battalion with trench mortar fire. One of the mortars landed on a dug-out and ignited a stack of star shells. Five men were killed in the blast, including Major Kayser, who was buried with full military honours in a makeshift cemetery behind the 12th
Battalion headquarters. Aged 37 at the time of his death, today he rests in the Warlencourt British Cemetery on the road to Bapaume.

Major Kayser was affectionately known by his men as “Monk”, and according to his Quartermaster Sergeant was “worshipped by the men of his battalion, both as a soldier and for his sterling qualities as a man”.

Julius August William Kayser:
Julius August William Kayser was born at Lyndoch, South Australia, on October 4th, 1877. He was educated at Prince Alfred College, and was a schoolmaster by profession. On December 24, 1904, at Maitland, he married Helen Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Prosser Henry Hopewell, and at the outbreak of the Great War was residing at James Street, Franklin, Alberton, and was teaching at the Alberton Public School. He was appointed a 2nd lieutenant in the 76th (Hindmarsh) Infantry on March 16, 1913, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the same regiment on March 1, 1914, and held this commission at the time of joining the A.I.F. He was one of the first South Australian Officers desirous of proceeding overseas, and on August 27, 1914, was appointed a lieutenant in the 10th Battalion at Morphettville, where he was posted to original "D" Company, but when it was decided to raise two companies of the 12th Battalion in South Australia he was immediately transferred to original "F" Company of that unit. He was actually with the 10th for such a short period that many of the original men did not know he had served amongst them for a few weeks. On September 21, 1914, after the first A.I.F. march through the city of Adelaide, he entrained for Melbourne with "E" and "F" Companies of the 12th Battalion, and proceeded to Tasmania, where he subsequently joined the main body of the 12th Battalion. He embarked with his battalion on September 20, 1914, and accompanied the First Australian Contingent to Egypt. On October 18, 1914, he was promoted to the rank of Captain and during the company reorganization at Mena, Egypt, in January, 1915, was transferred to "C" Company of the 12th Battalion and appointed 2nd in Command of that company. He accompanied the 12th Battalion to the Dardanelles, and landed with half of his company from one of the destroyers at the historic landing on April 25, 1915. He remained on the Peninsula until October 20, 1915, when he was wounded and subsequently returned to Australia. On March 3, 1916, he re-embarked for overseas and proceeded to France, where he was wounded at Pozieres in August, 1916. He proceeded to England, and was admitted to the Palace Green Hospital at Kensington West, London and later was transferred to Moray Lodge, Camden Hill. He subsequently, returned to France, where he was promoted to the rank of temporary major, and killed in action at Le Barque on February 16, 1917.

From Lock “The Fighting Tenth”