Alexander MACNEIL DSO, MID

MACNEIL , Alexander

Service Number: 746
Enlisted: 29 August 1914, Morphettville, South Australia
Last Rank: Lieutenant
Last Unit: 10th Infantry Battalion
Born: Inverness, Scotland, 24 August 1892
Home Town: Largs Bay, Port Adelaide Enfield, South Australia
Schooling: Inverness School, Scotland
Occupation: Boilermaker's assistant
Died: Natural causes, Sydney, New South Wales, 30 November 1972, aged 80 years
Cemetery: The New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Rookwood, New South Wales
His remains were donated to Sydney University at his request.
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World War 1 Service

29 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 746, Morphettville, South Australia
9 Oct 1914: Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 10th Infantry Battalion
20 Oct 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 746, 10th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: ''
20 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 746, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Adelaide
25 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 746, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli
1 Jul 1915: Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 10th Infantry Battalion, Gallipoli
19 Aug 1915: Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 10th Infantry Battalion, Gallipoli
16 Mar 1916: Promoted AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, 10th Infantry Battalion
14 Jun 1916: Wounded AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, 746, 10th Infantry Battalion, GSW (abdomen)
21 Jun 1916: Promoted AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 10th Infantry Battalion
3 Feb 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 10th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Alexander MacNeil 's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Neil Krumbeck

"He was wounded in the Fleurbaix Operation on 6 June 1916 and forced to evacuate." A note book and pocket book in his breast pocket saved his life by deflecting shrapnel away from his lungs and into his abdomen.

"At East of Bullecourt, on 6 May 1917, for most conspicuous gallantry, he was" recommended for the Victoria Cross but was ultimately "awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO),"

 

Biography

MACNEIL, Alexander (William Lauchlan) (aka McNeil) 

Born 24 August 1892 at Inverness, Scotland.

Son of the late Alexander and Grace MacNeil.

He was educated at Inverness.

On arrival in Australia where at the outbreak of the Great War he was residing at Largs Bay, South Australia and was a Boilermaker by trade.

He enlisted in the 10th Battalion at Morphettville on 29 August 1914, and was posted to original D Company, his regimental number being 746.

He was promoted to the rank of Lance-Corporal prior to embarking on HMAT A11 Ascanius, on 20 October 1914, when he accompanied the original Battalion to Egypt.  He subsequently proceeded to the Dardanelles with the 10th on the Ionian, and landed with his company form the destroyer Scourge at the historic landing on 25 April 1915.

Whilst on the Peninsula he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and on 16 March 1916 at Gebel Habieta, Egypt, he received his first commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion, and subsequently accompanied the 10th to France on the Saxonia.

He was wounded in the Fleurbaix Operation on 6 June 1916 and forced to evacuate.

Proceeding to England he was subsequently seconded for duty with the 3rd Training Battalion, and on 21 June 1916 was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

He subsequently rejoined the 10th Battalion in France, and became temporarily attached to the 3rd Trench Mortar Battery.

At East of Bullecourt, on 6 May 1917, for most conspicuous gallantry, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), which was promulgated in the London Gazette on 16 August 1917.  He was the fifth officer of the 10th Battalion to become a companion of this order. 

His conduct in the field, for which he was awarded the DSO is regarded by many as one of the most brilliant and outstanding episodes of its kind in the whole history of the AIF.

Brigadier-General H Gordon Bennett, CB, CMG, DSO in a Smith’s Weekly article headed:

“Great Deeds in the AIF”, and published on 24 May 1930 wrote:

 “MacNeil realised something must be done, and done quickly, for our men were being slaughtered, and were unable to help themselves.  He had noted that the enemy kept the flammenwerfer palying in the trenches, relying upon the supporting troops to shoot down any who tried to escape over the top.  Seizing a Lewis gun, he wormed his way over the parapet, and then from shell-hole to shell-hole towards the approaching enemy.  After going some little distance he waited until the man with the flammenwafter – his attention concentrated on the trench before him – had advanced a few yards past him.  MacNeil then stood up, and firing from the hip emptied the Lewis gun into the flammenwerfer merchant and those accompanying him.  As the leading Prussian fell, the nozzle of the infernal machine turned back upon his own comrades, inflicting upon some the fate so recently suffered by many of our men, and causing the rest to retire.  MacNeil, who had dropped to the ground immediately the Lewis gun was empty, perceived the confusion and ran back to his trench mortar.  Seizing half-a-dozen of the ten-pound bombs, he again clambered on to the parapet, and ran along, dropping one into each traverse occupied by the Germans, thus effectively clearing fifty or sixty yards of the trench we had so recently lost.  Badly shaken as they were, our men were slow to realise that the flammenwerfer attack was ended; but before the Germans could reorganize MacNeil rallied his men and counter-attacked.  Not only did he regain lost ground, but he pushed fifty yards further along the trench, where he erected another bomb-stop and held it against all attacks.  In the darkness and confusion no definite news had gone back to Headquarters as to how the fight went.  There was no opportunity for MacNeil to telephone, and all runners sent back had been killed before reaching their destination.  At dawn however, it was realized that the situation was desperate, and a fresh company of the 10th Battalion was ordered to reinforce the trench and continue the attack.  When the fresh troops jumped into the trench, MacNeil, white as a sheet, blood streaming down his face from a head wound, and hardly able to stand, threw his arms around the Commanding Officer’s neck saying,  ‘Thank Christ you’ve come, old man.  We’re all in.’  But for MacNeil’s cool courage and devotion to duty the flammenwerfer attack would have succeeded, and all those in our front line cut off and taken prisoner.”

 Shortly after the Bullecourt Operation in which he distinguished himself, he proceeded to England, and on 23 June 1917 was seconded for duty with the 2nd Training Battalion. 

For his splendid work with the 3rd Light Trench Mortar Battery he was Mentioned In Despatches (MID), vide London Gazette on 28 December 1917.

He subsequently returned to France, and on 13 June 1918 was seconded for duty with the 3rd Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery.

During the capture of Merris by the 10th Battalion on 29-30 July 1918, he did exceptionally brilliant work in fighting his Stokes mortar, and on 23 August 1918 he was promoted to the rank of temporary Captain, but such appointment was subsequently cancelled.

After the cessation of hostilities he eventually resigned his commission in Britain, his services with the AIF terminating on 3 February 1919.

In 1918 he married Mary, eldest daughter of C Morrison Rose, of Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England.

In 1935 he was residing at No.230 Upper Spit Road, Mosman, New South Wales, where for several years he unfortunately enjoyed indifferent health.

Extract from “The Fighting 10th”, Adelaide, Webb & Son, 1936 by C.B.L. Lock; kindly supplied courtesy of the 10th Bn AIF Association Committee, April 2015. 

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