LENZER, Simeon

Simeon Lenzer was born in Fitzroy on 4 May 1893.  He was the son of Jacob Lenzer and his wife Bertha, formerly Zipporah Brocho Lescht.  Jacob was minister of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, emigrating from Russia in 1889 especially to take up the position, and which position he kept until his death in 1921.  By 1903 the family had moved to 225 (now 386) Victoria Parade.  Bertha lived there with her daughter, Lizzie, until she died in 1946.  This was the address Simeon gave when he first enlisted on 19 August 1914.  He stated that he was a manufacturing jeweller and had been apprenticed to W… Cohn of Little Collins Street for five years and ten months.  He was considered fit for active service ‘with glasses’.  But it seems he was knocked back because he enlisted again on 6 August 1918, admitting that he had been previously rejected because of his vision. 

He embarked from Sydney on 2 November 1918 aboard the Medic as part of the 17^th Reinforcements, General Service Corps.  Three weeks later The West Australian reported that:-

The troopship Medic is due in Sydney tonight with 100 patients aboard suffering from influenza. She left Australia a few weeks ago with troops for England, via the Panama Canal. When the armistice was signed the steamer was ordered to return to Australia. It is reported that the vessel has had no connection with the shore.

The news was updated the next day saying that cases of influenza had reached 205.  The ship and its passengers and crew remained in quarantine for another three weeks. There is no record as to whether Simeon was one of the sufferers.  He was discharged on 31 December 1918.

On arriving home to Melbourne he returned to Victoria Parade to live and was still there in 1924 when he was charged with dangerous driving.  He was at that time described as a commercial traveller.  He married Merle Barnett of Fitzroy between then and 1931. In 1965 he wrote from Rose Bay, Sydney, asking for replacement discharge papers as his had been lost ‘most likely in my process of moving Melbourne to Sydney in the year 1939.’  He needed the papers for his application for a War Service Loans Home.  The electoral rolls during his Sydney life give his occupation as manager.

He died on 8 September 1966 in Sydney