Virtual
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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. 

Born 28 March 1873 at Flinders Street, Adelaide (later to be the site occupied by the Dunlop Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd).

Son of the late Peter Minagall, who was a native of Ireland, and for many years resided in Edinburgh, Scotland, and by occupation was a Foreman in the leather industry.

He was educated at the Goodwood Public School.

For eight years he was employed first in the office and later in the factory of the Hooker Engineering Works, which were established on the land later occupied by John Shearer & Sons, Ltd of Kilkenny.

He was later associated with Forwood, Down & Co and Simpson & Son, but in 1912 opened a foundry of his own at Goodwood.

On 11 April 1911 he married Ada Esperanza, daughter of the late Captain C F Bray, there being three sons and one daughter of this union.   The eldest son, who was born before the Great War, was accidentally killed whilst riding a motor cycle near Kapunda in February 1935.   The three surviving children were born since the war.

At the outbreak of the Great War he resided at Goodwood, and worked his garden with considerable success, being a recognised rose enthusiast.   He also owned a five-acre block at Oaklands.

In 1891, at the age of eighteen years, he joined the 1st Adelaide Rifles as a Private, and for the first three months of his military career was allotted to D Company at Port Adelaide.

He was then transferred to B company, in the same regiment, and subsequently transferred to the Army Medical Corps, in which he attained the rank of Staff-Sergeant.  

Before the introduction of universal training he was a Captain in the old senior cadets, and commanded the 1st Battalion.  He later commanded the Hindmarsh Company of Cadets, which for two years in succession won the Regimental Colours and King's Colours presented by Lady Dudley, wife of the Governor-General of Australia.

He led this company to Melbourne in January 1910 and personally received the colours from Lord Kitchener, who at that time was visiting Australia. 

On 16 August 1912, he was temporarily appointed Area Officer at Goodwood, the Headquarters of the 75th Infantry, and was placed on the Unattached List.  He held this position at the time of joining the AIF, and with Major F W Hurcombe and Lieutenant E W Talbot Smith was one of the three original 10th Battalion officers who were not on the Active List .

At the outbreak of the Great War he was carrying on business at his foundry in addition to the duties appertaining to Area Officer.

He was one of the first South Australian Officers selected by Colonel Weir for the personnel of the 10th Battalion, and on 19 August 1914 was appointed Quartermaster, with rank of Captain.

He was the first Officer to report for duty with the 10th Battalion at Keswick on 18 August 1914. 

For the first week at Morphettville, his stores were merely dumped in open spaces, uncovered and unprotected, and chaos and confusion reigned supreme/

Without proper provision for storage it was no easy matter to check supplies and supervise issues, but due to his untiring energy and efficiency the Battalion within a few days of the opening of that camp was fed and equipped.

He embarked with the Battalion on HMAT A11 Ascanius on 20 October 1914 and from that day to the day of the landing at Anzac acted as official 10th Battalion Correspondent to The Advertiser.

Whilst on the transport the companies continually drew stores and supplies, as some of the men had not been properly equipped.

At Mena, Egypt, his duties worked smoother, but upon embarking on the Ionian for the Dardanelles he found the position of Quartermaster almost impossible. 

“A Quartermaster's lot is not a happy one,” could be most appropriately applied to his Ionian experiences. 

In the first place the Ionian had transported Indian troops, and had not been overhauled and prepared to receive a battalion of infantry which was to remain on it for a month, and in the second place it was not provisioned with sufficient stores for that purpose.   Consequently the impossible position which presented itself from day to day when the troops had to be fed.

He speaks in glowing terms of Captain Henry, of that boat, and his officers, who from day to day eked out the rapidly diminishing supplies, wondering how long this unsatisfactory state of affairs would continue without a replenishment of supplies.

He did not land with the main body of the Battalion at the historic landing on 25 April 1915, but remained aboard the Ionian with Captain H W H Seager.

He had only been instructed a few hours prior to landing that he would not be permitted to accompany the covering force provided by the 3rd Brigade.   The Ionian stood off the Peninsula, whilst day and night the process of cramming every available portion of the vessel with wounded continued, until with gangways, decks and holds literally filled with maimed and dying men it sailed for Alexandria.

During that never-to-be-forgotten voyage to Egypt, he voluntarily collaborated with the medical staff on board, and with Captain Carlyle, of the A.A.M.C.  attended to the wounded and dying, and acted as a trained dresser, which duties for three whole days and nights precluded him from having a minute of sleep.   After a few hours in Alexandria and a quick return to Gallipoli, the Ionian arrived back on 29 April 1915.  The vessel then stood by awaiting instructions, and a message was transmitted to 10th Battalion Headquarters at Anzac, when to his joy and reply was heliographed back that he was to land and join the Battalion, then in bivouac at Shell Green.  Then followed the daily task of arranging water fatigues and beach parties – asking for forty men and being allotted twenty, arranging for rations and stores to be transported up the gullies and over the ridges, which necessitated running the daily gauntlet of “Beachy Bill.”

He was invalided ill from Gallipoli on 16 July 1915 and proceeded to Alexandria, but all hospitals at that port being full, he was taken on to Malta, where he was admitted to St Andrew's Hospital.   He remained at St Andrew's for about three weeks, until early in August 1915, when he re-embarked for Syracuse, in Sicily, disembarked, and proceeded to Florence, where he became an officer-guest of Lady Cutting, who is a cousin of Lord Lascelles.   He was one of a few AIF officers who had the unique privilege of proceeding to Italy, where the officers of the American Consulate and many others entertained them in a most cordial manner.

After a delightful convalescence in Italy he returned to Malta, and reported back to St Andrew's Hospital and subsequently proceeded to Alexandria, where he embarked on the Minneapolis, arriving back at Anzac and joining the Battalion in the line about the end of October 1915.  He accompanied the 10th when withdrawn from the Peninsula on 21 November 1915 and upon arrival in Lemnos, 22 November 1915 was promoted to Quartermaster of the Battalion to the tank of Honorary Major.

He served with the Battalion in Egypt, first at Tel-El-Kebir, and then at Gebel Habieta.   He considered the latter place a Quartermaster's nightmare, where water supplies were his eternal concern – eight miles to be the precious liquid, and a fight to get it upon arriving there.   

He accompanied the Battalion to France on the Saxonia, and remained with it until December 1916, when he proceeded to England and Ireland on furlough.

He returned to France, and rejoined the 10th in January 1917.

In June 1917, he left the Battalion at Ribemont, when Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob was in command and proceeded on three weeks' special leave to Italy, where he had an opportunity of renewing associations with the many friends he had made in Florence in 1915.

He was Mentioned In Despatches (MID) on two occasions, vide the London Gazette on 1 June 1917 and 25 December 1917, when he was seconded for duty with the 1st Australian Divisional Base Depot at Le Havre.

He left the Battalion at Westhoek Ridge to take up his new appointment as Quartermaster of the 1st Australian Division.   He retained this appointment for one month, until certain reorganisation had been effected, and then proceeded to England, where he remained on furlough for one month, prior to embarking for Australia on the Balmoral Castle.  

He was appointed Quartermaster on the Balmoral Castle, and arrived back in Adelaide on 24 March 1918.

His service with the AIF terminating on 6 April 1918.

For his distinguished service in France, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), which was promulgated in the London Gazette on 1 January 1918, amongst the New Year Honours, he being the seventh 10th Battalion recipient of same.

Early in 1918, before leaving England, he attended an investiture at Buckingham Palace, and received his decoration from the hands of His Majesty the late King.

During his absence from Australia he was appointed an Honorary Major in the Australian Military Forces on 22 November 1915.

On 1 October 1920 he was placed on the Reserve of Officers with rank of Major.

In 1935 he was transferred to the Retired List.

In October 1918  he worked for several months on different horticultural properties, in order to gain experience before acquiring a holding of his own.

On 4 November 1919 he was allotted a fruit-growing block in the Berri irrigation area, and later increased his holding by thirteen acres.

Ill health prevented him from continuing on the land, and on 29 May 1931 he was forced to relinquish same.

He then proceeded to North Kapunda, where for several years he had been retired.

Whilst at Berri he had been appointed a member of the Board of the Berri Distillery, and held a position for a period of two years.

On several occasions he represented the Berri sub-branch of the R.S.S.I.L of Australia and other River Murray sub-branches at various conferences in Adelaide.

During the war he was associated with the Montenegrin Red Cross and Relief Fund, and for his services was recommended for Montenegrin decoration, but the ultimate collapse of Montenegro nullified same.

He had always been a lover of the antique,  and possessed a fine collection of war souvenirs, including various calibred shell-cases, and actual “Beachy Bill” shell, pebbles from Anzac Cove, carved wooden panels from the cathedral doors of Bapaume, and the drum stick of the original bass drum of the original 10th Battalion.

On the Balmoral Castle he was the recipient of an illuminated address from twenty-four hospital patients travelling thereon, given to him as a slight token of the esteem in which he was held by one and all, and bearing the following verses:-

“He comes amongst us with a smile,

 And makes our living on worth while

 By treating us in friendly style:

           Our Major.

 Who sees that we get proper care,

 With best of tucker and fresh air,

 And does good as if unaware:

           The Major.

 There's no one else we wish so well,

 When go we must to heaven or hell,

 We'll raise our glasses and we'll yell,

           The toast of Major.”

                                                7/3/18.