Herbert Thomson Kienzle CBE (1905 - 1988)

Born 19 May 1905 in Levuka, Ovalau, Fiji

Ancestors

Husband of Meryl Elma (Holliday) Kienzle — married 4 Jun 1936 in Papua, Australia (later Papua New Guinea) [uncertain]

Died 7 Jan 1988 at age 82 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kenneth Evans [send private message]

Biography

Captain Bert Kienzle

Bert Kienzle CBE is Notable.

Captain Bert Kienzle CBE was a plantation owner and soldier from the Australian Territory of Papua. He is notable for his contribution to organising indigenous labour supporting Australian forces fighting along the Kokoda Track during the Second World War. He identified and named the dry lake beds, Myola, that were to become an important supply dropping area and staging point during the Kokoda Track campaign. In later life, he was recognised for his contribution to the development of Papua and New Guinea as they headed towards independence.

Formative years

Herbert Thomson Kienzle was born on 19th May 1905 in Levuka, Ovalau, Fiji. ^[1] Bert, as he was known, was the eldest of four children born to German-born Alfred Kienzle, a Fiji businessman, and Mary Wilson, the daughter of an English father and a Samoan mother. Mary died in 1914 after giving birth to another son. Alfred married again in 1915, to Australian 'Hally' Pearse. It has been said that neither Bert nor his sisters particularly took to their step-mother, but that may have been more to circumstances than anything else.

The First World War hurts the Kienzles

Bert Kienzle CBE migrated from Fiji to New South Wales.

In 1916 during the First World War, the family were deported to Australia and Alfred interned at Trial Bay, New South Wales as an enemy alien, despite being a naturalised British subject. It was not until late 1917 that the family were permitted to join him, in the concentration camp at Bourke, New South Wales. After the extreme heat of summer, they were sent to Molonglo (near today's Canberra city), where the opposite extreme affected them all in winter 1918. They remained at Molonglo until May 1919, before Alfred was released. Denied re-entry to Fiji, Alfred struggled to obtain employment. In 1920, aged 14, Bert was sent to post-war Germany with his two sisters, Laura and Elsa, to live with paternal family. They returned to Australia in 1925. Despite these experiences, Bert was patriotically Australian.

Making a life, in Papua

In 1927, Bert took up a position with the Papuan Rubber Plantations Pty Ltd, as an overseer on one of their plantations. Papua, the south eastern quarter of the island of the New Guinea, was then an Australian Territory administered by the Queensland Government (together with the north eastern quarter, then an Australian Territory mandated to the Australian Govvernment and formerly known as German New Guinea, in 1975 became the nation of Papua New Guinea). Advancing to plantation manager, in 1933 he obtained an assistant manager's position with a gold mining company operating in the Yodda Valley, near Kokoda. His younger brother, Wallace, joined him from Australia.

Bert married Meryl Holliday, a nurse and former opera singer, on 4th June 1936. They had met when he was in Sydney on vacation the previous year. As no record of marriage has yet been located in New South Wales, or Queensland, it is presumed the couple married in Papua. Meryl was listed as his next-of-kin on his service record.

In 1937, he took up an agricultural lease in the vicinity of the goldfield, which he planted with rubber, while continuing as manager of the gold mine. An adept manager, he learned the local language, developed cultural awareness and had an empathy for his workers. With the growing concern over Nazi Germany, Bert's father and step-mother changed their name by deed poll to Kingsley and moved to Papua.

War comes to Papua and New Guinea

Bert Kienzle CBE is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Second Australian Imperial Force 1941-1946
Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit

In March 1941 Bert enlisted in the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) with the rank of Warrant Officer. With the threat of Japanese invasion becoming real and with the assistance of fellow Yodda plantation owner, Doc Vernon, he helped organise local natives, the famous Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels: loadings, staging posts and distances, shelters, rations, health care, etc, without which the Australian advance to Kokoda may not have been possible. ^[2] He continued to serve along the Kokoda Track and at Buna–Gona, until he was evacuated sick on 22nd December 1942. He was commissioned as a Captain on 11th January 1943. He continued in ANGAU until, the war over, he was discharged on 4th February 1946. ^[1] Bert was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 23rd December 1943 for 'distinguished service in the South West Pacific' ^[3] and was Mentioned in Despatches (equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry).

Post war

Following the war, Bert re-established his agricultural holdings, introducing Angus cattle in 1952 to diversify his operation. About 1962 he purchased Papuan Airlines (previously Papuan Air Transport or Patair, and in 1970 taken over by Ansett Airlines). He served as a director of the Papua and New Guinea Development Bank. Bert worked strenuously to have the wartime contributions of the indigenous population fully recognised and was instrumental in having a monument commemorating the contribution of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels erected at Kokoda. On 1st January 1969, as the Australian Territories of Papua and New Guinea were preparing for independence as Papua New Guinea (independence happened in 1975), Bert's honour was upgraded to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for 'service to the development of Papua New Guinea'. ^[4]

After 1979, he and Meryl retired to properties at Tweed Heads, New South Wales and Allora (near Warwick), Queensland. Bert passed away on 7th January 1988 while on a visit to Sydney, was cremated and his ashes interred at Allambe Gardens on the Gold Coast. ^[5] He was survived by his wife (who died in November that year) and four of their five children:

1. Katherine 'Mary'; married surname Hardy
2. Carl (-1947, as a result of burns)
3. Diane; married surname Moloney
4. Jokn 'J K'
5. Wallace 'Soc' (1950-); married Robyn and had two daughters; completed the sale of Bert's estate before moving to Queensland's Darling Downs in 1993.

Lest We Forget

In 1995, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, opened the Herbert Kienzle Memorial Museum at Kokoda.

It was not until after Bert's death that 'Soc' learned fully of his father's involvement in the war from the contents of the capthor chest he inherited. In June 2006 he took his daughters to Kokoda and the Yodda Valley that they too might know their grandfather's story. ^[6]

The best-selling books Retreat from Kokoda (Raymond Paull, 1958), Ragged Bloody Heroes (Peter Brune, post 1987) and A Bastard of a Place (Peter Brune, post 1987) lean heavily on diaries and other material provided by Bert.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: PX177 Captain Herbert Thomas Kienzle; accessed 30 Jun 2021
2. ↑ Givney, Edwin C. The First at War: The Story of the 2/1st Australian Infantry Battalion 1939-45. The Association of First Infantry Battalions. Earlwood, 1987. ISBN 1 86252 965 5
3. ↑ Australian Honours: Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division); accessed 30 Jun 2021
4. ↑ Australian Honours: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division); accessed 30 Jun 2021
5. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #3100/1988
6. ↑ Ramsey, Alan. Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Jun 2006. 'A trail the tourists will never know'; accessed 1 Jul 2021

See also

• FitzSimons, Peter. Kokoda, updated edition. Hachette Australia, Sydney, 2010. ISBN 978-0-73361-962-5.
• Ramsey, Alan. Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Jun 2006. 'A trail the tourists will never know'; accessed 1 Jul 2021.
• Wikipedia profile: Herbert Thomson Kienzle; accessed 30 Jun 2021.