Five years ago when we commemorated ANZAC Day, there was a focus on the ending of World War One (the optimistically titled “war to end all wars”) as it was 100 years from the year in which that war ended.

Here we are now in 2023, and with the words “we shall remember them” ringing as they should in our ears, I thought to look back on the folk who had come home from the war five years after it ended.  

This was how I came across the story, or at least the outline of the story, of Gerald Percy Keddell, solicitor of Clyde.

Gerald was born in Greymouth in 1885, making him 29-years-old when the war broke out.  

He settled in Southland following gaining his Law Degree and was one of the greatest athletes to come from the province, holding the national hurdling record and winning the 120 yard and 440 yard hurdles at the Australasian Amateur Hurdling Championships in Brisbane in 1909.  

He gained Olympic selection but was unable to attend the Games due to the time commitment. He commenced practising law in Invercargill in 1915.

Gerald’s journey to the front is an interesting one, largely due to the length of time it took him to get there, which is something I haven’t been able to get a clear explanation about. 

On the 6th of June 1916 the Otautau Standard retracted a statement made in the previous edition that he was making arrangements to move to the front, with Keddell stating that even though he was “anxious from the first to make such arrangements as would allow him to enlist it is quite out of the question in the meantime”.

Gerald Kiddell

Gerald enlisted on 12 September 1917, one month before his younger brother Reginald was killed on the Western Front. Gerald himself got to Britain on 31 August 1918, ten weeks or so before the end of the war. I could not tell from reading his record whether he made it to the Front and the bloodbath that was the final few weeks of that war. What I could tell was that he rose to the rank of sergeant but applied to be returned to the rank of private within days of the Armistice. He returned home and was discharged from service 31 October 1919.

An engagement notice for Gerald can be found in 1920 but I can find no mention of a wedding nor of a widow or children at the time of his death. 1920 was the year he also moved to Clyde “for his health”, starting legal practice there on the 18th of October that year. His name can be found helping set up a rabbit board and he served on various committees such as the Clyde Domain Board and the Clyde Golf Club. In March 1923, just over 100 years ago from today, arrangements were made for someone else to look after the practice during his absence for undisclosed health reasons.

On the 13th of December 1923 in the Alexandra Magistrates Court, the renowned lawyer and MP William Bodkin announced Keddell’s death, stating: “The deceased had contracted his ill health as the result of War Service, so his untimely end in the prime of life was another case of a soldier giving his life for the Empire”. 

His many obituaries published across the country referred to him suffering an illness or malady ever since his return from the war that he finally succumbed to, with no indication of what that was. Whatever it was though, plainly the effects of his short time in the war stayed with Gerald and eventually led to the death of this champion athlete, accomplished lawyer and leader in the Central Otago community, 100 years ago this year.

What actually happened to Gerald? We may never know, but like so many others who came home, the suffering didn’t end. On this day, above all others, we shall remember them.