Summary

Portrait of Lieutenant Alan James Kerr, A Company, 24th Battalion, AIF, service no. 1058, taken in 1916 on paper marked 'R. Guilleminot', 'Paris'. It is inscribed 'Lieut A J Kerr. 24th A. I. F. killed in action 27 Aug 1916 Pozieres France... Keep this for me please.- Ted'. Kerr was actually killed on 27 July 1916.

The same portrait is held by the Australian War Memorial (P07758.004).

Alan James Kerr was a a 20-year-old clerk at the Union Bank, Melbourne, probably living at home with his parents at 15 Kintore St, Camberwell, when he enlisted to serve in the AIF on 19 January 1915. He had previously served with the Citizens Military Forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant with the Senior Cadets, and had been schooled at Wesley College. Private Kerr embarked with the 24th Battalion on the HMAT Euripides in Melbourne on 8 May 1915 (a photograph at the Australian War Memorial shows him at the dock prior to embarking: P03668.005). He served in Gallipoli from 30 August, but a month later was evacuated with diarrhoea on 30 September. He rejoined his battalion on 5 October, and on 3 December 1915 he was commissioned to the rank of lieutenant. After the evacuation of Gallipoli he returned to Alexandria, Egypt in early January, and by 27 March 1916 had arrived in France. On 27 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, Kerr was stuck by a shell and killed.

He was buried at Cemetery Post, two miles north-north east of Pozieres and four miles north-east of Albert. A photograph of this grave is held at the Australian War Memorial (P03668.002). His remains were later moved to Pozieres British Cemetery, plot 1, row E, grave 27.

Kerr had a brother who also served with the AIF, Captain Eric John Kerr, 11th Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. He was killed in action on 4 October 1917 at Ypres, Belgium. The brothers were survived by a another brother, who later corresponded with the Repatriation Department on his brother's behalf as medical doctor Frank Robison Kerr.

A collection of documents relating to Alan James Kerr is held at the Australian War Memorial - 1DRL/0397.

Description of Content

Portrait of Australian serviceman in uniform, full-length.

Physical Description

Black and white photograph on paper.

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