Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 445 McNEILL George Andrew                                  42nd Battalion
 
George McNeill was born in Ipswich to Neil and Agnes McNeill. The family moved to Esk in time for George to attend school at Esk. At the time, Esk offered increased opportunities for work, in both the timber industry and railway construction. When George left school,
started work in one of the many sawmills in Esk as a mill hand.
 
George and his younger brother, Richard, travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 8th November 1915. George told the recruiting officer he was 22 years old and worked as a sawmill hand. Richard was 20 years old at the time and he described his occupation as labourer. Both George and Richard named their mother, Agnes McNeill of Down Street Esk, as next of kin. Agnes was by that time a widow with two younger girls still at home. George and Richard made their way to Enoggera where both were placed into “B” Company of the 42nd Battalion.
 
The 42nd was being raised as part of the 11th Brigade which would ultimately become part of the 3rd Division AIF. George and Richard spent almost 6 months training at Enoggera during which time the brothers went AWL together for two days, perhaps to go home to Esk to see their mother and sisters. In the first week of June 1916, the 42nd Battalion embarked on a train at Alderley Station and proceed to Wallangarra where the battalion had to change trains due to a difference in rail gauge. Once onboard the NSW train, the battalion continued to Sydney where they embarked for overseas on the “Borda” on 5th June 1916. The embarkation roll shows George and Richard with successive regimental numbers. Each had allocated 3/- of the daily pay of 5/- to their mother. The battalion disembarked at Southampton, England, on 23rd July and proceeded to the 3rd Division Training Camp at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain.
 
In early 1916, four reconstituted divisions (1st,2nd, 4th and 5th) made up of Gallipoli veterans and reinforcements were raised in Egypt. These four divisions were sent directly to the Western Front to take part in the “real war” against the occupying German forces. While these four divisions fought in battles of the Somme Campaign of 1916, the 3rdDivision, which had no Gallipoli veterans in its junior ranks, remained in England for additional training under Divisional Commander Major General John Monash.
 
Monash was not a professional soldier, unlike the other senior commanders in the AIF. He was an engineer with a degree in law and had been a part time militia officer prior to the war. Monash believed in extensive planning and preparation to achieve an outcome at the lowest cost in casualties and he devised an extensive training schedule for his division. Monash’s position as a citizen soldier came to the attention of the King of England, George V, who journeyed down to Larkhill to inspect this division of “colonials.” Monash took the opportunity to organize a march past of the entire division, all 23,000 men plus field artillery. The march past took several hours and during that time Monash and his sovereign sat astride their chargers chatting amicably. The king was most concerned that the Australians would not have sufficient warm clothing for the winter which would coincide with the Division’s arrival at the front. His concern proved to be well founded.
 
On 25th November 1916, the 3rd Division sailed from Southampton for the French port of Boulogne and from there by train to the French / Belgian border area close to the ruined city of Ypres. Through all of the previous months, George and Richard had remained in “B” Company. They would remain close together for the coming campaign. The 42ndBattalion occupied front line and support positions during the severe winter. The battalion war diary records a daily report on the weather and the number of men who had gone out sick.
 
Following on from less than satisfactory results on the Somme in 1916 and early 1917, the British Commander Haigshifted his attention to the Ypres salient. The plan called for a series of battles in the summer and autumn of 1917, each of which created a stepping stone to the next objective. The first of these stepping stones was a ridge line which was occupied by the enemy and overlooked the ground that was to be used for the build-up of British forces. The ridge ran almost due south from a position just outside Ypres, where spoil from a railway cutting had been dumped (the famous Hill 60) towards the village of Messines and on to Warneton on the French border. The 11th Brigade of the 3rd Division moved up to the front line around Ploegsteert Wood near Warneton (soldiers called in Plug Street) towards the end of May to relieve some 4th Division battalions. While in the front line, George received a serious gun shot wound to his neck and ribs on 30th May 1917; just one week before the battle of Messines was to begin.
 
The neck wound caused complete paralysis and George was loaded onto an ambulance train at a casualty clearing station to be taken to a hospital at Boulogne. On 9th June, he was loaded onto a hospital ship which took him to Folkstone and then on to the King George Hospital in London. George remained paralysed and on 21st June 1917 he died suddenly of an embolism, aged 23. The matron of the hospital wrote to George’s mother in an effort to provide some comfort to Agnes. George was buried in the Australian Section of the Brookwood Military Cemetery. He was afforded a full military funeral with guard of honour and the hospital chaplain presiding. George’s uncle, Henry Jones, who was at that time attached to the provost corps at Tidworth barracks, attended George’s burial.
 
A month after George was wounded, Richard was also seriously wounded. His wounds were serious enough to have Richard sent back to Australia where he was medically discharged.
As a result of George’s death, Agnes was granted a pension of £2 per fortnight and George’s sisters were granted 10/- each a fortnight. When permanent headstones were erected by the Imperial War Graves Commission, Agnes chose to have the following inscribed on George’s headstone: HE DIED FOR US.