Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John MacDonnell enlisted to fight in The Great War because “the call of the Empire was too loud and insistent, and the quiet life of the analyst had to be exchanged for the arduous one of the soldier”.

 The youngest son of Irish immigrants, John worked as an analyst with the Queensland Government. His father was very active in soldier recruitment which may have put pressure on John Edward to support the war effort.

 On 13 June 1917, at age 20, John embarked the HMAT Hororata bound for England where he undertook military training. While on leave, he visited his mother’s family in Galway, Ireland who told him he needn’t go to war and could change his mind. Apparently a few Australians had done just that, and were living near Galway Bay. Needless to say, John went to war.

 In late 1917 he wrote to his family from camp.

 “Very heavy fighting has taken place and reinforcements are needed. I think I will be well in it by Christmas. The fighting has gone against Germany and there is an opinion amongst men from the front that the war will be over soon, Germany defeated.”  

 He was subsequently sent to France as a reinforcement for the 4th Pioneer Battalion on 23 January 1918.

 The night before John first went into the trenches, an elderly French priest heard his confession and administered communion. The Pioneers were in no man’s land on the night of 4 April, and one of them had left a spade in the area. The Germans were using it as a ranging marker to bombard the Allied lines, so a call was made for volunteers to retrieve it. John, the youngest of the group, volunteered. He ran out to retrieve the spade and was wounded by a German shell in the left thigh and right ankle. He was invalided to a Canadian hospital but died the next day, aged 21. He is buried at Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 1, Doullens, France.

 His sister Madeleine, wrote about receiving the news of his death.

 Her sister’s fiancé arrived at Madeleine’s workplace and told her to go home.

 “I asked why, even though I knew straight away that my brother had been killed. He said, ‘Your mother’s not well.’ I went and told my boss that I had to go home. It was terrible. I can still hear my poor father crying. My mother always prayed that he’d never kill anyone. She felt that his death so soon after going into the trenches provided some compensation in that he didn’t have to kill a German. My sister was getting married the week after we got word of John’s death. She had received a letter from him saying that if anything happened to him not to postpone the wedding. I was bridesmaid at a very quiet wedding with only two families. We were all crying more or less.”