MCDONALD, Frederick
| Service Number: | 1792 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 January 1915, Enlisted at Liverpool. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 13th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia., December 1890 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Construction Worker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Turkey., 25 November 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Lone Pine Memorial, ANZAC Cove. |
| Memorials: | Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Lambton Fallen Soldiers HR |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Jan 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1792, 13th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Liverpool. | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar 1915: | Involvement Private, 1792, 13th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
| 17 Mar 1915: | Embarked Private, 1792, 13th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Sydney |
Help us honour Frederick McDonald's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
Frederick MadDonald (Service Number 1792) was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, about December 1890. He worked in the Per-Way Branch of the NSW Government Railways. He worked on construction of the Abattoirs Line in 1908 and the Newcastle-Waratah quadruplication in 1915.
He enlisted at Liverpool on 22nd January 1915. Being unmarried at that time, he gave his sister, Nellie MacDonald, living in Queensland, as his next of kin. He also claimed 2¼ years’ service in the 4th Australian Infantry Regiment.
He served in the military in the 4th Reinforcement to the 13th Australian Infantry Battalion.
He became ill at Gallipoli on 22nd August 1915.. He was evacuated to Mudros (on the Greek island of Lemnos), but returned to his unit and the front line on 15th September.
He was killed in action on 5th November 1915.
Frederick MacDonald has no known grave and is remembered at the Lone Pine Memorial, high above Anzac Cove.
In a will prepared at Anzac Cove on 1st June 1915, MacDonald named his wife, Maud, to receive the whole of his property and effects. After notice of his death had been published in newspapers his widow Maud approached the military authorities. She supplied a marriage certificate and asked why she had not been notified of his death The military authorities replied that as far as they had been told MacDonald had been single. They had tried to contact the nominated next of kin (his sister Nellie), but as she had by then married, this proved difficult. When a Mrs (Nellie) Chalkleigh, née MacDonald, was eventually located the most commitment that could be obtained from her was that she ‘suspects that the deceased soldier is her brother. She is still in doubt as she has not seen her brother for a considerable number of years and prior to that occasion she had had very little communication with him.’
Eventually Maud MacDonald was accepted as the widow, paid a pension of £52 per annum, and given the medals and mementoes due on account of Frederick MacDonald’s service.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board