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Death registered as

Deaths Mar 1917 McPhe John 24 Amesbury 5a 280

He was 25 and the son of John and Sarah McPhee, of Eagle Farm, Bell, Queensland.

He was 25 and the son of John and Sarah McPhee, of Eagle Farm, Bell, Queensland.

Death registered as ...................

Deaths Mar 1917  McPhe_ John 24 Amesbury 5a 280

The summary below was completed by Cathy Sedgwick – Facebook “WW1 Australian War Graves in England/UK

Private John William McPhee was born at Dalby Queensland in 1892. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) on 19th September, 1914 as a 22 year old Labourer from Bell, Queensland. He joined 15th Battalion on 7th May, 1915 & was wounded in action at Dardanelles & reported missing at Gallipoli on 17th May, 1915.

Private McPhee was admitted to Hospital at Alexandria with GSW to finger (slight). He was returned to AUstralia & returned to duty at Broadmeadows, Victoria in Reserves on 14th October, 1915. Private McPhee was reported as a Deserter on 21st November, 1915.

John McPhee re-enlisted under this name on 26th May, 1916 as a 24 year old Labourer from Bell. He arrived in ENgland on 10th January, 1917 & was admitted to Military Hospital at Devonport the same day. He was discharged on 15th January, 1917 to No. 1 Command Depot at Perham Downs, Wiltshire.

Private McPhee was AWL on 22nd January, 1917. He was sent sick to Fargo Military Hospital, Wiltshire on 27th January, 1917 seriously ill with Pneumonia.
Private John McPhee died on 3rd February, 1917 from Pneumonia.

https://ww1austburialsuk.weebly.com/k---mc.html

# 766 / 2367   McPHEE John William                                    15th / 42nd Battalions
 
John McPhee was born in Dalby to parents John and Sarah McPhee. The McPhee family lived at “Eagle Farm” near Bell and there is a road in that area named McPhees Road. John went to school locally and when old enough began working on the family property. He was described as being a stockman and rural labourer. John reported that he had spent two and a half years serving in the Australian Light Horse 14thTroop in Bell prior to enlisting.
 
John travelled down to Dalby on the train and attended the recruiting office at the courthouse on 19thSeptember 1914. He stated his age as 22 years and five months and named his mother of “Eagle Farm” Bell as his next of kin. Five days after John enlisted, another young man from Bell, Ronald McLeod, also enlisted. John and Ronald journeyed by train to the Enoggera Camp where they were drafted into “B” Company of the 15th Infantry Battalion; with numbers 766 and 768. John had a studio photograph taken in his uniform prior to his departure for overseas.
 
The 15th Battalion was composed of eight companies; six coming from Queensland and two from Tasmania. The Queenslanders, under the command of Lieutenant James Cannan, a well-known Brisbane businessman and officer of the volunteer defence force, travelled by train over several days to Broadmeadows near Melbourne where the Tasmanian companies joined the battalion. The now complete battalion joined three other battalions to form the 4th Brigade of the AIF commanded by Colonel John Monash. The 15th boarded the “Ceramic” in Port Melbourne on 22nd December 1914 and sailed for Egypt, arriving in Alexandria on 3rdFebruary 1915.
 
The first contingent of the AIF, comprising three brigades, had been in Egypt since December. It was decided that the 4th Brigade would join with the New Zealand contingent to create the New Zealand and Australian Division. The 15th marched into the Aerodrome Camp at Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo and began intensive training for the next two months. On 14th April 1915, the 15th boarded two troop ships, the “Australind” and the “Seang Bee” for the voyage to the Greek island of Lemnos where the invasion force of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was being assembled in preparation for the assault on the Gallipoli peninsula. There was insufficient room for all of the Australian and New Zealand force to be billeted on shore and so the late arrivals, such as the 15th Battalion, remained on board the transports while practicing boat and landing drills.
 
At dawn on the 25th April, the 15th Battalion set sail for the beaches of Gallipoli. Those on board the “Australind” stood off the beach at Cape Helles and observed the British landings at Cape Helles before sailing north to Gaba Tepe where the “Seang Bee” was waiting. John and Ronald along with their company disembarked during the night of the 25th/26th April and bivouacked in a gully until dawn. At first light, the troops moved up the gully to relieve the exhausted men of the 9th Battalion at Pope’s Hill who had been holding the precarious position since the previous morning.
 
The 15th remained in the front line mainly at Quinn’s Post (named after the “B” Company commander, Captain Quinn) with only occasional relief for the next few weeks. On 20th May, while standing to at Quinn’s, John McPhee received a bullet wound to a finger. The official record describes the wound as slight but it must have been sufficiently debilitating to warrant evacuation to the 17th General Hospital in Cairo. Once the finger was healed, John was discharged to an infantry depot at Abassia. On 4th August 1915, John reported to the Venereal Hospital at Abassia suffering from gonorrhoea.
 
Venereal disease was a cause for great concern for the Australian authorities in Egypt. Particularly virulent strains of syphilis and gonorrhoea circulated through the Cairo community and the Australian soldiers, who were being paid up to three times the rate of British soldiers were particular targets for the local prostitutes. Treatment of VD, before the advent of penicillin, was slow and a soldier could be unable to perform his duties for many weeks. In an effort to curb the growing number of VD cases, sufferers were punished by having their pay stopped while in treatment; and in some cases, were sent back to Australia in disgrace. Returnees were usually sent to a former internment camp at Langwarrin on the outskirts of Melbourne which was redesignated the Langwarrin Dermatological Hospital; but soldiers called the “pox camp.”
 
John McPhee embarked on the “Wiltshire” in Egypt on 25th September 1915 with his file marked RTA (return to Australia) VD. Upon arrival in Melbourne, John was sent to Langwarrin Camp. The Langwarrin Camp provided scant medical treatment and the men interned there took a severe dislike to the barbed wire and the armed militia guards posted on the perimeter. It was claimed that some of the militiamen were prone to pilfering the red cross parcels intended for the patients. In October 1915 there was a mass breakout from the camp by men fed up with their treatment. Some were intercepted at Caulfield Railway Station by Military Police but other runaways made their way to Melbourne and beyond by other means. Notices appeared in the local newspapers advising that the runaways had until the 26th October to hand themselves in or be declared a deserter. Any one assisting a deserter was liable to 12months in prison.
 
It appears that John McPhee joined the breakout and was on the lam. John he did not heed the request to hand himself in and was declared “missing” from camp on 3rd November. He was subsequently declared a deserter by a board of inquiry on 21st November 1915 and his file was marked accordingly.
 
The next entry in John’s file is dated 26th May 1916 when John presented himself for enlistment at Toowoomba. It appears that John had avoided the attention of the military police and made his way home to Queensland by some devious route and was perhaps working back on the farm at Bell for several months. John’s re-enlistment may have been precipitated by a desire to make up for his previous indiscretions. It may also have been a case of hiding in plain sight as the ranks of the AIF would be the last place authorities would look for him.
 
John did not give his full name to the recruiting officer at the Darling Downs Recruitment Depot; stating his name as John McPhee. He was also untruthful when he stated that he had not previously served in His Majesty’s Forces. John again named his mother as next of kin. His age was stated to be 24
 
For the second time, John travelled down to Enoggera and joined a depot battalion before being slotted into the 3rd reinforcements for the 42nd Battalion on 22nd June 1916. He embarked on the “Boonah” in Brisbane on 21st October for the voyage to England. During the voyage, John absented himself for a period of 24 hours and was fined three day’s pay. It must have been hard for John, a Gallipoli veteran, to have endured the pointless drills. John disembarked in Plymouth on 10th January 1917 and proceeded to the 11th Training Battalion Depot at Durrington in Wiltshire.
 
It is possible that John was unwell before landing in England and he spent some time in hospital at Perham Downs and then the Fargo Military Hospital at Durrington where he was admitted on 30th January, his condition NYD (not yet diagnosed). On 3rd February 1917 John died as a result of lobar pneumonia, aged 25. John was buried in what is now the Durrington War Cemetery. His mother chose the following inscription for his headstone:
GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN