MCKECHNIE, John Adolph
| Service Number: | 2191 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 11 February 1915, Adelaide South Australia Australia |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Balaklava South Australia Australia, 21 May 1893 |
| Home Town: | Lucindale, Naracoorte and Lucindale, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Pozieres Picardie France, 23 July 1916, aged 23 years |
| Cemetery: |
AIF Burial Ground, Grass Lane, Flers, France (XVI.H.9.) A.I.F. Burial Ground , AIF Burial Ground, Flers, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Lucindale War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 9 Feb 1915: |
Involvement
AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2191, 10th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, Acting Sergeant |
|
|---|---|---|
| 11 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Adelaide South Australia Australia | |
| 25 Apr 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2191, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli | |
| 23 Jun 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, HMAT Borda (A30) | |
| 23 Jul 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2191, 10th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières | |
| 23 Jul 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Battle for Pozières | |
| 23 Jul 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Battle for Pozières |
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Sergeant John Adolph McKechnie:
John Adolph Mckechnie was born in 1893 in the town of Balaklava, South Australia. He was the only son of Priscilla (nee Dellow) and Malcolm McKechnie and he later moved with his family to Lucindale in South Australia’s South East corner. Prior to his enlistment in Adelaide in early 1915 he regularly attended the Lucindale Rifle Club for two years. He worked in the area as a labourer.
John McKechnie responded to the Empires call and enlisted on the 9th of February 1915 at age of 21. He was placed in the 6th Reinforcements, 10th Battalion. He embarked on the 23rd of June 1915 on HMAT Borda (A30) at Adelaide with the rank of Provisional (Acting) Sergeant. He landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 4th of August 1915 and was taken on strength by the 10th Battalion. Diagnosed with Diarrhoea on the 3rd of September he was taken to the hospital on the peninsula before he was evacuated and admitted to the hospital on Malta with Dysentery on the 10th of September 1915. John McKechnie never returned to Gallipoli Peninsula.
Given a full bill of health he disembarked at Alexandria on the 7th of November 1915 where he later re-joined the 10th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir (Tall-al-Kabir) on the 31st of December 1915. In January 1916 he had brief dental work done on his teeth in Cairo. Still in Egypt, he was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 1st of March 1916 before again being promoted to Corporal on the 22nd of March. With the rest of the 10th Battalion he boarded RMS Saxonia in Alexandria on the 27th of March 1916 bound for The Western Front. Corporal John Adolph McKechnie disembarked at Marseilles on the 3rd of April 1916.
Promoted to Sergeant on the 10th of April 1916, John McKechnie saw little service on the Western Front with the 10th Battalion until July that year. Between the 23rd and the 25th of July 1916 while fighting at Pozières Sergeant John McKechnie was killed. Originally listed as Missing in Action his parents, Mrs and Mr McKechnie, anxious, moved to Adelaide to live with Priscilla McKechnie’s brother who was an accountant. John McKechnie was only listed as Killed in Action on the 19th of June 1917 by a Court of Enquiry, but the location of his body was unknown. He was 23 years old when he was killed.
In 1926, his grave was located and his body was exhumed before it was reburied at the A.I.F. Burial Ground in France. Conflicting witness statements still mean that it is unknown exactly when, where and how Sergeant John Adolph McKechnie was killed.
1914/15: 4286
British War Medal: 14877
Victory Medal: 14819
Memorial Plaque and Scroll: 327007
Nathan Rohrlach, 2013.
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