At St Patrick’s College, we believe that it is important to honour the service of those who have served in Australia’s defence in time of war. In particular, we take time to honour Old Collegians for their efforts.
At our ANZAC Day Assembly on Thursday, 24 April, we took the opportunity to honour the service of Louis Scott Ehrenberg who was a student here at St Patrick’s in 1907. Louis was born in Moreland, Victoria, August 11, 1895; his Mum and Dad were Samuel and Mary Cecilia. Louis was a boarder at St Patrick’s, along with his brother Samuel Morris Ehrenberg (SPC 1907).
At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 Louis’ brother Samuel joined the AIF serving in the 5th Australian Infantry Battalion and was tragically killed at Gallipoli – just a teenager. Hearing of his brother’s death at Gallipoli, Louis joined the British Imperial Forces on 19 May 1915. Louis was in England at the time as he was the proprietor and projectionist of the Scala Cinema in Southampton.
During his service in the British Army, he was a member of both the Liverpool and Manchester regiments. Miraculously he survived the war relatively unscathed with the exception of a shrapnel wound to his inner thigh. After the war, Louis returned to Australia and lived initially in the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park.
During the 1920s, Louis worked in Hollywood and learned the training methods used to prepare American actors for the transition from theatre to film as they adapted to perform in the new phenomenon known as ‘sound films’- or talkies which introduced sound to pictures in the late 1920s. Whilst we take this for granted today, it was cutting edge technology back in the 1920’s.
Electoral rolls reveal that he had moved to NSW in 1930. He also hyphenated his surname to Scott-Ehrenberg.
During World War II, Louis once again joined up; this time with the Australian Military Forces on 15 March 1944, his attestation papers detailed his occupation as a “Motion Picture Producer.” He was single, and his next of kin was his Aunt Golda Ehrenberg, who lived in Park Street, Elsternwick, Victoria.
He served in the 43rd Landing Craft Company based at Lae on the north coast of New Guinea where he sustained an accidental back injury. His service records show that he was medically discharged as a result – he was 38 years old – he was flown out of the New Guinea town of Madang to Cairns in Queensland on the 19th of September 1945.
Upon his return, Louis resumed his career as a motion picture producer. He worked for the Commonwealth Film Studios, a company established to produce films about Australia. Its mission was to create an audiovisual record of Australian culture through the commissioning, distribution, and management of programs that dealt with matters of national interest or illustrated and interpreted aspects of Australian life.
By 1946, Louis was established as a talented film producer and he worked with some well-known Australian actors, including Charles “Bud” Tingwell. Bud played the leading role in his film ‘Always Another Dawn’, which was about the Australian Navy’s efforts in WWII. Louis’s skill as a director was highlighted in 1948 when he directed two short film documentaries: one focusing on the work of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the other on the Red Cross, featuring well-known Australian singer, Smokey Dawson.
The Red Cross organisation was instrumental in offering some of the comforts of home to the troops particularly in New Guinea and New Britain during the war. They were also instrumental in assisting prisoners of war. This short film was important to repatriated troops as it addressed some of the issues and hardships that they had endured on their return to civilian life and reminded them of the fact that they were not alone in confronting these hardships.
