Carl Henry Kaeppel

Carl Henry Kaeppel MC BA (13 January 1887 – 6 December 1946), generally referred to as Carl Kaeppel, was an Australian scholar of Classical languages and geography.

History Kaeppel was born at Nattai near Mittagong, New South Wales, a son of (Carl William) Herbert Kaeppel (c. 1855 – 22 January 1888) and Emily Annette Kaeppel, née Edwards ( – 12 August 1927). His father died when Kaeppel was one year old.

Kaeppel was educated at Sydney Grammar School, of which he was captain in 1905, and at Sydney University, where he graduated BA with first-class honours in Classics in 1910. He had won the Salting exhibition, Cooper scholarship, and Cooper travelling scholarship, which entitled him to go to Oxford, but illness prevented him from taking up the opportunity;

He enlisted with the First Australian Imperial Force in January 1916. In mid-March, as Lieutenant Kaeppel, he left Australia to serve in World War I with the 18th Battalion. He was promoted to captain and adjutant, was mentioned in dispatches and won the Military Cross.

He worked at the British Museum on early geographic texts, and did a course in anthropology at London University under Professor Seligman.

Kaeppel travelled extensively in Europe and learned eleven languages, but was not a polyglot.

He returned to Australia, where by 1922 he had been appointed senior classics master at Melbourne Grammar School by headmaster R. P. Franklin, a close friend (they had taught together at "Shore"), but in 1931 was forced to leave on account of his heavy drinking. He moved to Sydney, where he survived by tutoring privately. and devoted the last years of his life to Catholic education, teaching at Marist Brothers' High School, Darlinghurst (280–296 Liverpool Street, since demolished), and St Vincent's College, Potts Point. He edited a regular page on education for The Catholic Weekly.

He died in Lewisham Private Hospital, aged 59. Requiem Mass was celebrated at St Canice's Church, Darlinghurst, and his remains were buried in Waverley Cemetery.

Personal Kaeppel married Muriel Beatrice Bailie on 8 January 1916. She left him while he was overseas and they divorced in 1920.

Character According to reports, Kaeppel was a reliable and lovable individual who valued knowledge in its pure form. and spoke on a range of subjects on ABC radio. A regular at the Savage and Naval and Military clubs, he was a hard drinker.

Publications

Used by State Education Departments.