S31876
PANNELL, James Grier
| Service Number: | 17061 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 October 1916, Adelaide, SA |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd Divisional Signal Company |
| Born: | Mount Gambier, 7 June 1896 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Grocer's Assistant |
| Died: | 7 February 1975, aged 78 years, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia Cremation Only |
| Memorials: | Loyal Mount Gambier Lodge No 47 Great War Roll of Honour, Loyal Mount Gambier Lodge No 47 I.O.O.F. M.U. Great War Roll of Honor Board, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier Knight & Cleve Pictorial Honour Rolls, Mount Gambier St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Roll of Honor (2) |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Oct 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Adelaide, SA | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan 1917: |
Embarked
AIF WW1, Sapper, 17061, 5th Divisional Signal Company, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: RMS Omrah embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' |
|
| 8 Aug 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sapper, 17061, 2nd Divisional Signal Company, "The Last Hundred Days" | |
| 11 Nov 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 17061 | |
| Date unknown: | Honoured Military Medal |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
17061 Grier James PANNELL was born at Mount Gambier on 7 June 1896. He attended Sutton Town Public School before being enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 6 September 1909 by his father Frank Pannell, a butcher, of Penola Road, Mount Gambier. He left school on 24 June 1910. The Border Watch reported him having passed the telegraphists’ examination, the telegraph messengers’ examination, and finally being appointed as a postal assistant.
He enlisted in Adelaide on 16 October 1916 (20, grocer’s assistant, single, Presbyterian) naming his mother, Mrs Margaret Jane Pannell of Mount Gambier, as his next of kin. He embarked from Adelaide on the ‘Omrah’ on 19 January 1917, disembarked at Devonport in England on 27 March and was attached to the Signals Section Training Depot before being sent overseas to France on 14 May 1917 where he joined the 2nd Division Signals Company on 24 May. He was awarded the Military Medal for his work on 4 October 1917. His commendation reads:
On the morning of the 4th of October, in the attack on the Passchendaele Ridge, Sapper James Grier Pannell and [592] Sapper [Harry Franklin] Broadbent with a carrying party of one n.c.o. and six other ranks, took an amplifier station forward. The party was caught in the enemy barrage, rendering the whole of the carrying party casualties. Sapper Pannell with Sapper Broadbent placed the apparatus in a safe place and returned through the barrage and procured fresh carriers. Then returning again to the apparatus, installed it in a position and established communication. This man remained at his station in the forward area for ten days, maintaining communication under great difficulties.
He went on leave to Paris from 1 to 5 March 1918 and to England from 8 to 24 March 1918, and was hospitalised for several weeks from 9 May 1918. He re-joined his unit on 25 May. After the armistice he went on leave to Paris again from 11 to 20 January 1919 before leaving France for England in March 1919, departing England from Devonport on the ‘Cluny Castle’ for return to Australia on 23 March 1919, disembarking on 21 May and was discharged on 19 June.
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