PURTELL, John Joseph
| Service Number: | 4244 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 26 January 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Second Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company) |
| Born: | Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, 23 January 1872 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Christian Brothers College, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Miner |
| Died: | Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, 7 November 1947, aged 75 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Ballarat (Old) General Cemetery |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 26 Jan 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jun 1916: | Involvement 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company), --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Warilda embarkation_ship_number: A69 public_note: '' | |
| 1 Jun 1916: | Embarked 4244, 1st Tunnelling Company (inc. 4th Tunnelling Company), HMAT Warilda, Fremantle | |
| 1 Jun 1916: | Embarked 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company), HMAT Warilda, Fremantle | |
| 1 Jun 1916: | Involvement 4244, 1st Tunnelling Company (inc. 4th Tunnelling Company), --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Warilda embarkation_ship_number: A69 public_note: '' | |
| 8 Oct 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Second Corporal, 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company), France: GSW arm (severe) | |
| 4 May 1917: | Embarked AIF WW1, Second Corporal, 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company), embarked Plymouth for Fremantle on board HT Miltiades | |
| 20 Aug 1917: | Discharged AIF WW1, Second Corporal, 4244, 3rd Tunnelling Company (inc. 6th Tunnelling Company) |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
2nd Corporal John Joseph Purtell (Service No:4244) enlisted in the AIF on 26 January 1916 with 47 Depot Battalion, and was attached to No 6 Tunnelling Coy when he embarked with his Unit on 1 June 1916 from Fremantle for Plymouth on board HMAT A69 Warilda. 2nd Corporal Purtell served on the Western Front, and was WiA in France (severe GSW to arm) on 8 October 1916. Invalided to England, 2nd Corporal Purtell embarked from Plymouth for Fremantle on 4 May 1917 on board HT Militiades, and was attached to 3rd Tunnelling Coy at Discharge on 20 August 1917. Four of his sons - Tom, Jim, Vin and Paul - served in WWII.
John was born in Ballarat, Victoria in 1872, second of six children of Michael Francis Purtell (b1837 in County Limerick, ireland) and his first wife Margaret Prout (b1843 in County Tipperary, ireland). Michael was a Farm Labourer in 1852 when he immigrated to the Colony of New South Wales, arriving on board the Neptune, and was a Miner at Spring Creek via Sandhurst, Victoria by 1856. Michael and Margaret married in 1869 in Ballarat, where they settled and raised their family and Michael was a Miner.
In the late 1880s John was working as a Prospector in the Western Australian Goldfields - at Paddington Gold Mine via Kalgoorlie, where in 1899 he married Emily Ethel Tanner (b1878 in Melbourne, Victoria). John and Emily lived in Kalgoorlie and Albany, and John was a Miner/Smelter Hand in 1916 when he enlisted in the AIF. Following his Discharge, John and Emily moved to Coburg in Victoria, where John was a Railway Employee. John then worked as a Miner/Prospector through the 1930s in Bendigo and Kalgoorlie before retiring in Melbourne in the late 1930s. Emily, a talented musician and artist and heavily involved with the Labour movement in Coburg and the Trades Hall Council, died in 1943 and John died at the Heidelberg Military Hospital in Melbourne in 1947.
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