Lauritz Hojem was born 23 July 1884 to Johanne and Isak Ylipaa Hojem in Vadso, Norway. (His enlistment ambiguously recorded his surname as Hojein or Hojem.*) Lauritz was a typographer then seaman, who came to Australia c. 1910 and became a naturalised British subject. He gave his address as Stirling St Perth, WA, (and gave his religion as Church of England*) when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 September 1914, aged 30, at Blackboy Hill.

No. 268 Pte Lauritz Hojein joined D Company of the 16th Battalion, which assembled and trained in Melbourne. They embarked on HMAT A40 Ceramic on 22 December to join the second convoy at Albany, WA, and sail on 31 December with the 2nd Expeditionary Force. After arriving in Egypt on 31 January 1915, the battalion - part of Colonel John Monash’s 4th Infantry Brigade of the New Zealand and Australian Division - trained at Heliopolis, near Cairo.

The brigade left Alexandria in early April 1915 and gathered with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZACs) at Mudros, on the Greek Island of Lemnos, where they practised landings. They landed at ANZAC Cove late in the afternoon of 25 April 1915 and from Monash Valley a week later, the 16th Battalion was thrown into the attack on Bloody Angle, between Quinn’s Post and Pope’s Hill, in a vain effort to take the high ground - particularly Baby 700 - suffering many casualties. (See separate record of Gordon Fink et al, and attached painting by Ellis Silas, who was a signaller to Jewish Captain Eliazar Margolin of B Company). Prior to the battle, Colonel Monash had advised his concerns to superiors – to no avail - and afterwards he was greatly distressed at the waste of life and at what he saw as the professional soldier and Division C.O. General Godley’s attitude of: “bumbling through,” with poor or nil planning.

Lauritz’s record gives no indication of the circumstances of his death, only that he was “Killed in Action” on 2 May 1915 (Court of Enquiry, Egypt, April 1916). Unlike many diggers at Gallipoli, his body was actually identified, and he was buried at Quinn’s Post Cemetery, Turkey.

* All we know of his background is from his record in the NAA (National Archives of Australia) and Roll of Honour circular in the AWM (Australian War Memorial).

Pte Lauritz Hojein’s mother, Johanne Hojem in Norway, requested a ‘Magen David’ symbol on her son’s headstone (see attached) and subsequently received a pension - notwithstanding that a Miss Elsie Cohen of Stewart St, Perth, claimed to be the sole executor and beneficiary of his will.