Reginald Hubert BURNELL

BURNELL, Reginald Hubert

Service Number: 28017
Enlisted: 5 September 1916, Show Grounds Camp
Last Rank: Gunner
Last Unit: 12th Field Artillery Brigade
Born: Granville, New South Wales, Australia, 23 December 1888
Home Town: Parramatta, New South Wales
Schooling: Kings School Parramatta & Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation: Farmer
Died: Exploding Shell, Sanctuary Wood, Belgium, 2 October 1917, aged 28 years
Cemetery: The Huts Cemetery, ​Dickebusch, Belgium
Row IX, Plot A, Grave 1
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Temora WW1 War Memorial
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World War 1 Service

5 Sep 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Driver, 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, Show Grounds Camp
25 Oct 1916: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Driver, 28017, 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '22' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: ''
25 Oct 1916: Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Driver, 28017, 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, HMAT Ascanius, Sydney
2 Oct 1917: Involvement Gunner, 28017, 12th Field Artillery Brigade , Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 28017 awm_unit: 12th Australian Field Artillery Brigade awm_rank: Gunner awm_died_date: 1917-10-02

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Biography contributed by Faithe Jones

Parramatta people will be grieved to hear of the death of that fine lad, Reginald Burnell (younger son of Mrs. K. Burnell, of Macquarie-street, Parramatta), who made the supreme sacrifice in France  on  October 1. Lieut. J. G. Burnell cabled that on the night of October 1 his brother, Gunner Burnell, had been killed by a shell. He saw his brother buried. Gunner Reginald Burnell was attached to a battery of artillery. He was 28 years or age.

He was born in Granville, his father, the late Mr. H. G. Burnell, then being manager of the Granville branch of the Commercial Bank. He was educated at The King's School, and many of our readers will  remember him as a clever scrum half in the first fifteen. After leaving T.K.S. he went to Hawkesbury College, where he captained the college football team for a couple of seasons. Leaving the college  he went to Temora, where he took up wheat farming. 

It was while thus engaged the war broke out, and young Burnell sought to get away, but for a long time he was tied up in his arrangements with the Government, but as soon as he could possibly  arrange matters he enlisted, and left Australia on the 25th October, 1916. He went to the front in France in the first week of May of this year. His last letters, received only last week, were written in a  very happy strain, and reports from elsewhere stated that he was looking very well. Our sympathy goes out to Mrs. Burnell and her family.

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Biography contributed by Elizabeth Allen

Reginald Hubert BURNELL was born on 23rd December, 1888 at Granville, Sydney, NSW

His parents were Hubert Gray NURNELL and Emmaline Kate WILLS

His brother Captain John Gurner BURNELL also served in WW1 and waas awarded a Military Cross & the Croix de Guerre - he returned to Australia in 1919