MCCONVILLE, Don
| Service Number: | 4030 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 2 February 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | 102nd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery |
| Born: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1893 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Electrician |
| Died: | Killed In Action, Belgium, 20 October 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
The Huts Cemetery, Dickebusch, Belgium |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 2 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Driver, 4030, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb 1915: | Involvement Driver, 4030, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade , Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '3' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Feb 1915: | Embarked Driver, 4030, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade , HMAT Shropshire, Melbourne | |
| 19 Aug 1916: | Honoured Military Medal | |
| 2 Oct 1917: | Transferred AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 102nd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery | |
| 20 Oct 1917: | Involvement Second Lieutenant, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: awm_unit: 102nd Australian (Howitzer) Battery awm_rank: Second Lieutenant awm_died_date: 1917-10-20 |
Help us honour Don McConville's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Rod Hutchings
McCONVILLE, Don. Second Lieutenant, 102nd Howitzer Battery. A foundation player for the Hawthorn Football Club (1914) and recipient of the Military Medal for bravery at Pozières. Killed in action at Polygon Wood on 20/10/1917, just fifteen days after his brother Victor was killed.
It was 20 October 1917. Second Lieutenant Don McConville was inside a command post at Anzac Ridge, Belgium. He was 24 years old. With him was his commander, Captain Crewe. They were in the middle of a routine German bombardment when an 8-inch shell struck the timber and earth directly. The dugout was blown to pieces. Both officers and two of their men were killed instantly. Don had been a commissioned officer for exactly ten weeks.
Before the war, McConville was a face known to thousands in Melbourne and Sydney. An electrician by trade, he was a "well-built, athletic young fellow with the bronzed skin of a surf bather". In 1914, he was a foundation player for the Hawthorn Football Club's first senior season in the VFA. He was a brilliant centreman with a "lightning dash" who played 17 games in the brown and gold.
He enlisted in February 1915. He served at Gallipoli, repairing signal lines under shrapnel at Lone Pine. On the Somme, he was awarded the Military Medal for carrying wounded men to safety while serving his trench mortars under heavy fire. Major General Harold Walker wrote of his "conspicuous bravery" and "devotion to duty".
By October 1917, the war was closing in. Don's brother, Victor, had been killed by gas just fifteen days earlier. A mate who saw Don at Dickebusch noted he was "greatly upset". He had barely had time to mourn before the iron rain at Polygon Wood found him too. Don McConville rests today at The Huts Cemetery in Belgium. His father, Hugh, received his medals in a small package in Fitzroy. Two sons had left. Neither came back.
Lest we forget
Rod Hutchings
Director, Virtual War Memorial Australia