The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (769)Second Lieutenant Louis Walter Teitzel, 25th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (769)Second Lieutenant Louis Walter Teitzel, 25th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Second Lieutenant Louis Walter Teitzel, 25th Battalion, AIF
KIA 29 July 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 6 March 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Second Lieutenant Louis Teitzel.

Popularly known as “Lou”, Louis Walter Tetizel was born in Warwick, Queensland, in 1886 to Betsey and Heinrich Teitzel. He was one of six children born to the couple, two of whom died in infancy. His mother was born in Lincolnshire, England, and came to Australia in 1873. His father was born in Hanover, Germany, and also migrated to Australia in 1873, arriving with his five brothers and a sister. He was a tobacconist with his own business in Warwick and Louis and his four brothers grew up in the area. On leaving school Louis went on to become a telegraphist.

Teitzel enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1915. He proved an able soldier, and was promoted a number of times within a year of enlistment. He arrived on Gallipoli in September 1915, and although the major offensive operations were over, he still experienced the dangers of the battlefield. On 20 October his mate, Lieutenant Auchterlonie, was next to him in the trench fixing the parapet. Auchterlonie turned to step back into the trench and was shot in the back of the head, falling dead at Teitzel’s feet. Weeks later Teitzel was himself wounded by a bomb and evacuated to hospital in Malta.

In April 1916, after arriving in France, Teitzel was promoted to second lieutenant and by all accounts took Auchterlonie’s example to heart in developing his own leadership style. His friend Lieutenant Fletcher later recalled “on the series of route marches from Amiens to Albert we had glorious fun together, just as if nothing was in store for us”.

They reached the front line in late July 1916 near the French village of Pozières. Fletcher recalled, “In the morning we heard that we were to attack that night. There was very little to do, for we were preparing for this really for the past week, and by that time all were ready to do or die.”

The attack was launched at 12.15 am on 29 July. Lieutenant Teitzel, in command of 12 Platoon of C Company in the 25th Battalion, led his men over the parapet and towards a German trench known as OG 1. There he found that the German barbed-wire defences were uncut, and in a hail of machine-gun fire tried desperately to guide his men through a small gap he found. About ten minutes after the attack began Teitzel was shot in the head and blinded. He grabbed the nearest man and said “I’m blind; find the sergeant and tell him to carry on.” He could not get back to safety, and took shelter in a nearby shell hole. He was never seen alive again. He was 30 years old.

Lieutenant Fletcher wrote:

we are all sorry – those of us who are left – to lose such a brave officer. Still it is one consolation … to know that he died bravely and carrying out the noblest duty with his men. It was an honour to have acted and cheered the boys as he had, and may there be more to act in a similar manner.

In Australia, Teitzel’s father died in 1926, having tried since the war to locate his son’s remains. The following year Lou Teitzel’s body was discovered during exhumation work around Pozières. He was buried in the nearby AIF Burial Ground in Flers.

Louis Teitzel’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Second Lieutenant Louis Walter Teitzel, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section