World War I Commemorative Website

War Memorial Hall  c1929

Memorial Hall circa 1929
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William Buchanan KERR

KERR

William Kerr was born on 23 May 1893 in Kew, Victoria. His parents were William Warren and Jane Buchanan (née Gosman) Kerr. He attended Scotch in 1908.

William was an insurance broker and commercial traveller when he enlisted on 23 September 1914 at Adelaide, South Australia. He served in the 16th Battalion with the rank of Lieutenant.

William died on 2 May 1915 at Gallipoli. He was 21 years of age.

Service record

William Kerr had served in Citizen Military Forces battalions for two years before the war, and was made a 2nd Lieutenant when he joined the AIF in South Australia in September 1914. He landed with the 16th Battalion at Gallipoli on the afternoon of 25 April 1915. He had been promoted to full Lieutenant when he participated in the battalion’s costly attack on the Bloody Angle the following week and was killed. His service file contains a poignant letter from Kerr’s father, asking for accurate details of his son’s death (see below).

William Kerr has no known grave, but is commemorated at Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli.

Photographs and Documents:

kerrWB

This is one of 131 photographs displayed on an honour board showing members of the Adelaide Rowing Club who enlisted in the First World War.

kerrWB

A group portrait of officers of the 16th Battalion, probably taken in 1915. Lieutenant Kerr is third from the left in the back row. The AWM caption identifies seven others in this photo as killed or mortally wounded on 2 May 1915, the same day that Kerr was killed.

kerrWB

Photo of the remnant of the officer’s tunic of one of seven officers of the 16th Battalion killed at the Bloody Angle at Gallipoli on 2 May 1915. It could be William Kerr’s, as he was one of those officers.

Sources:

  1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
  2. Mishura Scotch Database
  3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, KERR WILLIAM BUCHANAN
  4. Scotch Collegian1915 and 1919
  5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=163970

Page last updated: 11 November 2015