Former magistrate Richard Kleinig’s quest to identify and record all service personnel from the Fleurieu Peninsula who died in battle

RICHARD Kleinig had little idea a simple request from his wife Lee would result in a two-year labour of love.

Retired Magistrate Richard Kleinig withone of his books cataloguing service personnel fro

RICHARD Kleinig had little idea a simple request from his wife Lee would result in a two-year labour of love.

After he retired as a magistrate in 2008, the couple moved to Goolwa, purchasing the impressive limestone home in which her mother was born.

Keen to learn more about an ancestor — Private Jack Lundstrom — who features on Goolwa’s cenotaph, Ms Kleinig, 54, asked her husband to find out where her great-uncle served and the circumstances of his death.

Mr Kleinig, 62, discovered Private Lundstrom had enlisted in January, 1916, when he was 28. He initially fought in France in 1916 and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery while fighting in the battle of Menin Road in Belgium in September, 1917. He was shot in the left thigh a month later and discharged in November that year.

He died in January 1945 and was buried in an unmarked grave at the Currency Creek Cemetery.

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While his wife was comfortable, and proud, after learning of her ancestor’s past, Mr Kleinig was far from content. His inquiring mind was yearning for more information on each of the region’s servicemen.

He felt the wider community would also benefit from learning of the exploits of its local servicemen and what became of them.

“Lee wanted to know more about Jack and once I had discovered everything I could about him and his exploits, it just blossomed from there’’ he said.

“I thought it wasn’t fair if I didn’t do the rest of the names on the Goolwa monument and pressed on with my research.’’

His quest would take the next two years and eventually take in all servicemen from the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. Besides visiting most of the cemeteries, studying gravesites and headstones, he spent thousands of hours poring over data in the national archives that included enlistment papers, service histories and details held by the Australian War Memorial.

“I was keen to expand my research not only to include the soldiers themselves, but their parents and spouses and for those who did return, I wanted to know their ultimate fate,’’ he said.

“Obviously, with those killed in action, we know they are in a cemetery or there is a memorial somewhere, but I wanted to cover those who did return also.’’

He said he had no idea there were so many servicemen from the local area beyond the 116 listed on the Goolwa monument and the same number identified on the Victor Harbor monument.

“I thought that would probably be it, but it just kept going. It really surprised me,’’ he said.

Mr Kleinig’s painstaking research has resulted the publication of A Guide Behind The Lines, in two volumes. It details almost 1500 service personnel from the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.

Part one of A Guide Behind The Lines deals with service personnel from townships including Ashbourne, Encounter Bay, Goolwa, Inman Valley, Langhorne Creek, Middleton, Milang, Mt Compass, Port Elliot, Prospect Hill, Victor Harbor and Strathalbyn.

Part two covers northern Fleurieu townships including Aldinga, Delamere, Meadows, McLaren Vale, Myponga, Normanville, Second Valley, Sellick’s Hill, Willunga and Yankalilla and the Kangaroo Island townships of Kingscote and Penneshaw.

Mr Kleinig said while many of the stories involving individual soldiers he uncovered had touched him, the case of George Edward Parker had upset him most.

Born at Strathalbyn in 1890, he enlisted in 1915 when aged 25 and first served in the 15th battalion in the Middle East. He became a company sergeant major and was awarded the Mlitary Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

“He was wounded several times, obviously a very accomplished soldier and came back to Australia in May, 1919,’’ Mr Kleinig said.

Sadly, just four days before the unveiling of the Strathalbyn war memorial in August, 1921, his brother wrote a letter to the military authorities saying that he died as a result of “a gun accident’’.

“He had been in the most bloody war human history had known, was the recipient of very high awards for a non-commissioned officer and his life ended back home like that,’’ he said.

“That is code I think. I don’t think he could take it anymore once he was home, it was too much. That really moved me.’’

“Some of the stories of these men were quite depressing.’’

Launching the Mr Kleinig’s book in December, Governor Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce said the many monuments dedicated to fallen soldiers “remain a poignant reminder of the courage and sacrifice of a generation of young men and women.’’

“As the centenary of the Great War looms, this publication is very timely indeed,’’ he said.

“Timely because we face the real challenge of retaining our collective memory of the service and sacrifice of our brothers and sisters. Not only does a collective memory honour those who fought, but it invites those later generations to contemplate the gravity of war, and the importance of its alternatives.

“But a collective memory is made up of more than just monuments, the effect of which is mostly reliant on members of the community knowing the detail of the individuals involved.’’

Mr Kleinig said he felt it was “tremendously important’’ that the exploits of the local servicemen be documented in one concise work. It was already proving to be a valuable resource for local service clubs, libraries and schools.

“There are a lot of amateur historians down here. It was one resource that was missing,’’ he said.

Proceeds from the sale of the books are going to the local community radio station Radio Goolwa, which published them.