Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John (Jack) Thomas McDonald was aged just 17 years and 2 months when he joined the AIF on 13 August 1915.  Jack's parents, Edward and Sophia McDonald, both gave their permission for Jack to enlist.  Jack's occupation was Railway Porter and stated his previous military experience was in the Senior Cadets for four years.

Jack was allocated to the 11th reinforcements of the 16th Battalion and was sent to the Blackboy Hill Camp in Western Australia for further training.  As Jack had previous military experience, he became a signaller attached to C Company.  Jack, along with the rest of the 11th reinforcements sailed from Fremantle on 1 November 1915 on the 'Benalla' where he undertook more training in Egypt.  Jack was taken on strength to his battalion on 7 March 1916, but it was not until 9 June 1916 the 16th Battalion moved to France, one day after Jack's 18th birthday.

At midnight on 9 August 1916 the 16th Battalion made its first attack on the Western Front in the countryside below Mouquet Farm.  Across no-man's land they were guided by flash lights embedded by the scouts in earth with a different coloured light for each company.  All battalion objectives were successfully seized, including a number of German machine-guns and their crews.  The next day, the German retaliation was swift.  A bombardment such as the 16th had never experienced descended on the captured positions, and on the afternoon of 11 August, a German counterattack began.  The 16th beat this off but the ensuring enemy bombardment fell heavily on battalion positions. 

The 16th Battalion returned to Mouquet Farm on 29 August 1916 but were unable to hold on to what had been taken on their first rush.  Heavy rain had also turned the shell-torn earth of Mouquet Farm into a quagmire in which the mud penetrated rifle and machine-gun mechanisms, rending them useless, and even clogged the firing pins of grenades.  During this period Jack's responsibility was to ensure all lines of communication were kept open and repaired during the enemy bombardment. 

While Jack was in the muddy and bloody trenches in France, he would not have been aware that back home in Fremantle his family faced a battle of their own.  Jack's father, Edward, had died in Fremantle Hospital on 19 July 1916.  Then sadly Jack's mother, Sophia, was admitted to the Lunatic Asylum at Claremont on 29 July 1916.  Jack was the eldest of Edward and Sophia's children.  He had two brothers and two sisters; the eldest was aged just 12 years of age the the youngest was three. 

Jack's uncle and his wife took temporary care of the children and appealed to the Army for Jack to return.  1916 was drawing to a close and their request was denied as the Army needed all of its troops.  However, Jack's uncle would not take no for an answer and approached the Hon. W.D. Johnson MLA to appeal for Jack's return, as his mother was overcome with grief and just wanted her son home; the family's situation was indeed dismal. 

After much correspondence from Mr Johnson, the Army finally agreed to release Jack, sending him back to London on 16 February 1917 for return to Australia.  However, it was not until 4 May 1917 that Jack left England aboard the 'Runic', receiving his discharge on 20 July 1917.

On arriving back in Australian, Jack set about getting a job and bringing his mother home from the asylum, he became the breadwinner of his family raising his four brothers and sisters, in 1917 his younger sister, Elizabeth Alice was 13 years old, Patrick Joseph was 9, Bridget Teresa was 7 and the youngest, Phillip James Brendon (known as Brendon) was aged just 4.  In 1925 the whole family was still living in Gill Street, East Fremantle, in the house his father had bought, along with his mother Sophia, Jack was then working as a labourer.  His mother Sophia, died in 1926.

Even though Jack fought in France, taking part in the Battle of Pozieres Ridge from 23 July 1916 to 3 September 1916, he did not receive the British War Medal or the Victory Medal.  Jack went on to marry Priscilla Spence in 1928 at Fremantle; Jack died in 1967 at Millendon. 

One hundred years after the end of World War 1, a researcher of AIF Service Records discovered that Jack never recived his medals and after a lengthy search, located his descendants to alert them of the situation.  One of Jack's grandsons subsequently applied to the Defence Department for his grandfather's medals, which will eventually be presented to Jack's surviving son by the 16th Battalion in Perth. 

Jack and Priscilla had four children, two sons and two daughters; Neville James (died 2012), Joan Irene (died 2013), his son aged 86, who will received his father's medals and a daughter aged 85.  The Army life was in the McDonald blood, with two of Jack's grandsons serving in the Australian Army; Lance Corporal Meryn McDonald and his younger brother Percy. 

Lance Corporal Mervyn joined the Army on 31 May 1999 and was killed in a helicopter crash in  Afghanistan on 30 August 2012 while serving with the Special Operations Task Group, while Percy served from 2001 to 2005 in the 3rd Battalion (Parachute) at the Royal Australian Regiment, based at Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney and was stationed in East timor (2002), Baghdad, Iraq (2003/2004) and Solomon Island (2005).

Sources:

Roll of Honour Album originally owned by Arthur Leslie Matthews, Service No. 3139

National Archives of Australia, Service Record - John Thomas McDonald Service No 3535

Australian War Memorial, War Diaries - 16th Battalion and 4th Brigade

Offical History of Australia in the War of 1914-1919 Vol 111 The AIF in France 1916 - C E W Bean

From Fromelles and Pozieres In the Trenches of Hell - Peter Fitzsimons

The Great War - Les Carlyon

www.ancestry.com.au - Australian Voter & Census Lists

Family information from a grandson of Private McDonald.