MCGANN, William Ernest
| Service Numbers: | 196, 4551 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 February 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 8th Field Company Engineers |
| Born: | Chilton, Victoria, Australia, May 1892 |
| Home Town: | Chiltern, Indigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Engine Cleaner |
| Died: | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, 2 June 1973, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Woden (Canberra) Public Cemetery, ACT |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 196, 23rd Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 1915: | Involvement Private, 196, 23rd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
| 10 May 1915: | Embarked Private, 196, 23rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Melbourne | |
| 7 Aug 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Sapper, 8th Field Company Engineers | |
| 21 Nov 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sapper, 4551, 8th Field Company Engineers, 3rd MD |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From Gallipoli, 1915
Writing to his parents from hospital in Alexandria on 7th December 1915, Spr. William Ernest McGann, 4th Field Company, Australian Engineers, described some of his experiences at Gallipoli.
“I am getting on fairly well, but I am a long way from being right. It is a fair brute lying on your back day after day. I have been a month in bed, and am only on a milk diet, and can see another month of it ahead of me yet. I would sooner be on Gallipoli any time. I saw few exciting incidents, in fact I was in some warm places myself. The second day I was in the trenches I was sent to put a row of sand bags on the parapet of a bomb pit. Another chap and I started it, and the work was alright until Johnny Turk spotted us. They turned the machine gun on to us, but we managed to get them all up but three. As fast as we poked them up Johnny would cut them in halves with his bullets, and it look us a day and a half to get the three up; the bombs were coming over at times. We have been working underground and could hear Johnny working alongside. He used to try to work very cunningly. If we stopped picking Johnny would stop too. We would gammon to make a start and only give three or four picks and stop. Then you would hear Johnny going for his life. All of a sudden he would stop when he found out we were not working. Well, we sapped under him, and gave him a trip to heaven or somewhere, for we never saw him come down. (Poor devil!)” [1]
[1] 'Federal Standard' (Chiltern, Victoria), 11th February 1916.
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