SNEDDON, Walter Fitzgerald
| Service Numbers: | 3142, 3124 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 1st Tunnelling Company (inc. 4th Tunnelling Company) |
| Born: | Burrum Bridge, Maryborough, QLD, 16 February 1896 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Blacksmith Striker |
| Died: | Sydney, NSW, 30 October 1955, aged 59 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Rookwood Cemetery & Crematorium |
| Memorials: | Hamilton War Memorial, Wallsend Soldier's Memorial, Wallsend Soldier's Memorial, Wallsend St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3142, 4th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3124, 4th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Warilda embarkation_ship_number: A69 public_note: '' | |
| 8 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3124, 4th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Warilda, Sydney | |
| 13 Feb 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 56th Infantry Battalion | |
| 29 Aug 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Sapper, 1st Tunnelling Company (inc. 4th Tunnelling Company) | |
| 13 Aug 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sapper, 3142, 1st Tunnelling Company (inc. 4th Tunnelling Company), Embarked on the H.T. Cluny Castle 23rd March 1919 disembarking in Adelaide 21st May 1919 before making his way to Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Sharyn Roberts
THE amazing true exploits of father and son miners from Wallsend who tunnelled under the German trenches on the Western Front during World War I will be told on the big screen next month when the movie Beneath Hill 60 opens in cinemas around the country in the lead-up to Anzac Day.
And helping to transform their unsung heroism into a $9 million motion picture are two former Hunter men, screenwriter David Roach and costume designer Ian Sparke.
"Beneath Hill 60" tells the remarkable story of Captain Oliver Woodward, a Queensland miner who earned the Military Cross for his service with the 1st Australian Tunnellers Corp, a battalion of miners and engineers recruited to tunnel silently under the German lines in France and Belgium in 1916.
Among the tunnellers were Walter Fitzgerald Sneddon, who enlisted on July 7, 1915, and his father, James Brown Sneddon, who joined on October 30 the same year.
Both were experienced coalminers from Wallsend.
Their mission was to detonate a massive store of explosives 30 metres underground and plunge the German troops in the trenches above into chaos.
At 3.10am on June 7, 1917, their work culminated in what was then the largest man-made explosion in history as a series of 19 underground bombs, totalling 450,000 kilograms of high explosive secretly placed in Allied tunnels under German lines along the Messines ridge in the Ypres area of Belgium, were detonated in a mighty eruption that was reportedly felt in London, 200 kilometres away.
An estimated 700 Germans died instantly and thousands more were injured or taken prisoner, shocked and unable to fight.
"Beneath Hill 60", directed by actor Jeremy Sims and starring "Love My Way's" Brendan Cowell, "Underbelly's" Gyton Grantley and "The Black Robe's" Aden Young, was shot in Townsville last year.
It has its world premiere in Sydney on April 8,2010 and opens nationally on April 15, 2010.