MCDONALD, Robert
| Service Number: | 587 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 26 August 1914, Kensington, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Kotupna, Victoria, Australia, 15 February 1878 |
| Home Town: | Echuca, Campaspe, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Echuca State School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Died of wounds, France, 3 August 1916, aged 38 years |
| Cemetery: |
Boulogne Eastern Cemetery VIII. A. 167 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 26 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Kensington, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney | |
| 25 Apr 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, GSW to foot. Evacuated to Egypt. Rejoined unit 20 May 1915. | |
| 8 Aug 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, The August Offensive - Lone Pine, Suvla Bay, Sari Bair, The Nek and Hill 60 - Gallipoli, No details. Evacuated to Egypt. Rejoined unit 3 November 1915. | |
| 3 Dec 1915: | Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Gallipoli | |
| 17 Feb 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Egypt | |
| 25 Jul 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Sergeant, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , GSW to head. Evacuated to 13th General Hospital (Boulogne) where he died of his wounds on 3 August 1916. | |
| 3 Aug 1916: | Involvement Sergeant, 587, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 587 awm_unit: 3 Battalion awm_rank: Sergeant awm_died_date: 1916-08-03 |
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Robert McDonald was the only son of James and Mary Ann McDonald .
Robert was a farmer in the Echuca Shire and was working as a railway worker in the Golbourn area when war was declared. He was one of the first to enlist in the 3rd Battalion and saw action at Gallipoli on that first fateful day of th 24th April 1915. He was wounded and returned to Egypt to recover and was then sent to the front in France where he was killed in action on the 3rd of August 1916.
Biography contributed by John Oakes
Robert McDonald was born at Kotupna, Victoria about August 1889.
He enlisted at Kensington on 27th August 1914, very soon after the outbreak of the war. He gave as his next of kin at first his sister, still living in the town of his birth. In September 1916, after his death, Hannah McDonald, living in Victoria, produced a marriage certificate and the next of kin details had to be changed. He was allotted to the 3rd Battalion. McDonald embarked HMAT ‘Euripides’ at Sydney on 20th October 1914 and reached Egypt in a few weeks for further training. He embarked ‘Derfflinger’ on 5th April 1915 to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force landed on Gallipoli on Anzac Day (or very soon after). He was certainly there four days later when he as wounded in the foot and evacuated to Alexandria. The injury cannot have been too severe for he was back on the front line by the end of May.
He was wounded in a second occasion on 4th June. On 8th August was admitted to hospital and evacuated to Cairo with ‘debility’ – a general term covering shell shock and a lack of physical fitness to fight. It was September before he was discharged from hospital and late October before he re-joined his unit on Gallipoli. He was promoted to Corporal on 3 December and returned to Alexandria after the general evacuation on 29th December 1915.
In Egypt, in February he was promoted to Sergeant, and in March embarked at Alexandra for passage through Marseilles to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. Here he was given further training at the School of Instruction. He was wounded on a third occasion between 22nd and 27th July 1916 at Pozières. He was admitted to the 1st Field Ambulance and the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station, and then No. 13 General Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, he died of that wound on 3rd August 1916. He was buried at Boulogne Cemetery by the Rev T S Goudge.
Despite the production of the marriage certificate in 1916, by 1921, when service medals and other mementoes were being distributed, McDonald’s widow could not be contacted, so they were given to his sister, who had been his next of kin and was the legatee under the terms of his will. Hannah McDonald, his wife, had been awarded a pension from October 1916, and was also trustee for the pension paid to Frank McDonald, their son.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.
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