Private Frederick Jacob Kafer, 53rd Battalion,
Australian War MemorialFrederick’s father, Jacob, emigrated to Australia in 1855 with his parents and siblings from Auenstein, in the German Kingdom of Württemberg. They settled in the Maitland–Newcastle area of New South Wales, where Jacob married Annie Maria Baker in 1873. The couple soon began a family of nine children. Frederick Jacob Kafer, born on 29 August 1878, was their third.
Little is known about Frederick’s early years, apart from schooling in the Newcastle area. He got work as a coal-trimmer, tending ships that came into port with cargoes from Australia’s eastern seaboard. His father, Jacob, also spent many years as a stevedore and coal-trimmer on the Newcastle waterfront. In 1904, Frederick married Charlotte Absolom, a local girl. They had two sons, Norman and John, and a daughter named Jill.
When war broke out in August 1914 Frederick was 36 years old. He didn’t join up immediately, but volunteered at the end of December 1915. Frederick signed on as a private and was allotted to A Company of the 35th Battalion. After basic training, he and his comrades embarked in Sydney aboard the troopship Benalla, departing on 1 May 1916. Two months later they arrived in England, where they underwent further training. There was some confusion over which unit Frederick belonged to. Nevertheless when he crossed the channel in late September he had been assigned to the 53rd Battalion. Known as the “Whale-Oil Guards” because of the polish applied to their helmets, by the time Frederick joined them on the muddy Somme battlefield in October 1916, the battalion had probably long given up trying to keep their helmets clean.
Described by one soldier as “a big lump of a man”, Frederick stood nearly 6 feet tall and with his years spent on the waterfront, could likely handle himself in the rough and tumble of army life. Through that long, miserable winter of 1916 on the Somme, then into 1917 and 1918, he served alongside his comrades in the 53rd. They pushed up to the Hindenburg Line, where in May 1917 Frederick was first wounded by shrapnel to the forehead. Later that year he was hit again at the battalion’s biggest battle – Polygon Wood, near Passchendaele. Then in the spring of 1918, Frederick was wounded a third time. A gunshot wound to the head was more serious, and this time he was evacuated to England. After several weeks’ recovery in a North London hospital, he went to a convalescent depot and finally to a training brigade to rebuild his strength before returning to the front.
At the end of July 1918 Frederick was back with the 53rd, just in time for their final campaign. The battle of Amiens, which opened on 8 August, was a stunning victory. In the weeks that followed the Australians drove the enemy back along the Somme, but by the end of the month the Germans had made a stand at Mont St. Quentin and the town of Peronne.
Before dawn on 1 September the 53rd moved into position north-west of Peronne. In drizzling rain they attacked but immediately encountered enemy troops and dense barbed wire. As another battalion broke into the town, the 53rd battled forward to seize Anvil Wood, just to the north. Many acts of bravery were seen among the 53rd, foremost being Private William Currey, also from Newcastle, as he rushed forward alone to capture a German field gun that had been inflicting heavy casualties. This earned him the Victoria Cross. The battalion advanced into a cemetery but were pinned down by intense enemy fire from three sides.; There among the gravestones they remained for the rest of the day. We don’t know exactly when or how Frederick Kafer was hit during this battle. He was badly wounded, and died later that day. The 53rd suffered nearly 60 per cent casualties; a total of 252 men were hit, including 51 killed.
- AWM Honour roll https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1644108
