Neille Brothers
SAPPER HARRY NEILLE
4427 - 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company
Harry Neille was born at Ballarat, Victoria in 1870, the son of George James and Eliza (nee Murch) Neille. He became a mine fitter by trade without undertaking an apprenticeship.
Sometime after he moved to live in West Australia he met a charming Kitty Lust and sought her hand in marriage from her father George Lust. That request was granted and the couple married at a place called Black Range in 1911. Part of a gold mining area the ‘town’ is some 56 kilometres north west of Kalgoorlie. Their address in 1915/16 was the Trans Railway Depot, Parkeston, Kalgoorlie.
Australia entered the war against Germany and Austria in August 1914 and the Australian Imperial Force – AIF - was formed and was in action at Gallipoli in 1915. In May 1915 an Anzac mining unit of some 260 infantrymen with mining experience was hurriedly put together in the field to counter Turkish mining operations at Quinn’s Post. It was decided in Australia to form a specialist Mining Corps with experienced engineers and miners and properly equipped for mining operations.
At some point in time Kitty Neille left Harry to work for the Wellington Woollen Company in Wellington, New Zealand.
Lieutenant Leslie Coulter, a former mining engineer with Mt Lyell Mines, was sent from Sydney to West Australia in November 1915 to recruit experienced miners of ‘skilled and of sound physique’ to form a third Mining Company. He returned to Sydney on 26 December 1915 with 274 recruits who had embarked with him at Fremantle on SS Indarra on 18 December. They went into camp at Casula and joined some Tasmanians and became the 3rd Mining Company.
Meanwhile in Western Australia a number of Miners hearing about the recruitment drive began to consider whether they might join the AIF and make available their mining experience. One was Harry Neille. (And another may well have been a brother of Harry namely Charles Arthur Neille who joined 6TC, went overseas on the same ship and was posted to the same Tunnelling Company) Harry fronted for a medical examination at Boulder on 9 January 1916 and was found fit for service The next day he went to the AIF Camp at Blackboy Hill and completed his attestation.
Harry confirmed the information mentioned earlier in the profile. He nominated Kitty, his wife as Next of Kin and gave her address as 6 Jessie Street Wellington NZ. He was enlisted on 14 January 1916, allotted Service number 4440 with the rank of Private and posted to 43 Depot at Blackboy Hill to undertake his induction into the AIF. (Later his wife’s address was changed to c/o Wellington Woollen Company, Jervios Quay, Wellington NZ)
The Mining Corps with its 1st Reinforcements reached Fremantle on the way to France aboard A38 HMAT Ulysses in March and Harry no doubt was present at a ceremonial parade on 7 March 1916 where the Corps was presented a flag by the Kalgoorlie Mining Fraternity.
Several Officers left the ship charged with the responsibility of recruiting a 6th Mining Company. On departing Fremantle on 8 March 1916 the Ulysses ran aground and the Mining Corps camped at Blackboy Hill until repairs were completed and the Corps left Fremantle on 1 April 1916.
Three more Tunnelling Companies were formed in Australia in 1916 namely 4 TC, 5 TC and 6 TC. 4 TC was recruited in Queensland and New South Wales while 5 ATC was recruited in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. 6 ATC was recruited solely in West Australia and all sailed for France on A69 HMAT Warilda that left Brisbane and embarked Company members at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle before leaving Fremantle on 1 June 1916. None served as Units in their own right but were used to reinforce the first 4 Companies.
Harry’s mining experience was noted and he was signed up as a member of the 6th Tunnelling Company at Belmont on 1 May 1916 by Captain Lawson the Company’s CO and was allotted Service number 4427 with the rank of Sapper. A month later he embarked on A69 HMAT Warilda at Fremantle as a member of 6TC, disembarking at Plymouth on 18 July 1916. Then it was into Camp 3 at Parkhouse on Perham Downs near Ludgershall for further training and movement to France as reinforcements for the existing ATC’s.
On 18 August Harry copped 3 days confined to barracks with pack drill for Disobedience of Orders and on 22 September left Perham Downs for France where he marched in to the 2nd Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples on 26 September On 2 October Harry ran foul of authority again for creating a disturbance in lines after lights out for which he was sentenced to 7 days confined to Camp He was then posted to the 1st Anzac Reinforcement Camp until 16 October when he was posted to the 1st Anzac Entrenching Battalion, a Battalion that was used for training sappers in the various engineering tasks they had to perform.
Then on 26 October 1916 Harry was ‘attached’ to the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company for further training. The Canadians were from eastern Canada, had arrived in France in March 1916 and when Harry joined them they were working on the tunnels under Hill 60 They handed over Hill 60 to 1 Australian Tunnelling Company on 9 November 1916 and it seems he remained with the Canadians until 3 December 1916 when he, along with 29 others was taken on to the strength of the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company – 3ATC.
At the time 3ATC was working entirely in the mining system of Hill 70 and that work continued until April when defensive and offensive mining work ended because the Boche ceased mining evidently realising 3ATC was far superior to them The Company then had 2 major tasks. One was the repair of important local roads between Lens and Bethune and between Calonne and Lieven. The other was the carrying of trench mortar ammunition forward to the front line positions.
Harry was in the Section that worked on the Lieven road and that was where he was wounded in action on 22 April 1917 when hit by shrapnel from an enemy shell. The Section had been ordered to take up the work of pushing the road from Calonne as a lorry route. The material was to be drawn from the debris in Calonne and Lieven GS wagons from 173 Tunnelling Company will be used for transport. The event was recorded in the diary kept by 1428 Sapper F M Miles and the entries appear below:
16 Monday Weather much better and things much quieter. Big batch of Germans came over to surrender then got close to the Buffs and bombed them. Great aerial activity.
18 Wednesday Went to Collone (sic) at 7.30. Got the place fix for billets. Went on mending road to Lieven. Worked from1to 8 with Byers.
19 Thursday Heavy shelling going on all night. 6" How fired 1000 round from 6 to 6 am on Lens. Campbell's relief. Worked from 6 to 7 pm. Byers lost his leg. Rodin died of wounds. Acted as stretcher bearer.
21 Saturday Shelling continued all night. Killed two horses in amb. waggon. Williams wounded in the ankle. Stopped a runway. G S driver injured in the knee. Paid 40 francs.Two of our badly cut at Loos. T Neal had his leg taken off. Big attack made by the British, 1300 prisoners passed through Barlin.
24 Tuesday Had a parade. General Horne* inspected us. Spoke well of the work done by our Company. (Actually General Sir Arthur Holland)
Harry was carried to the 1/3 NM Field Ambulance where he was admitted with a shell wound to his right leg then transferred to 6th Casualty Clearing Station for further treatment before being placed on Ambulance Train 22 for transport to the 3rd Canadian General Hospital in Boulogne where his right leg was amputated on 28 April 1917. Next day he was on his way to England on the Hospital Ship Jan Breydal for admission to the Eastbourne Military Hospital on 30 April.
He remained at that Hospital until 24 May when he transferred to 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield where he received various tests before being transferred on 19 June to 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Southall that specialised in treating men with lost limbs. Here Harry had to learn how to manage without his right leg and to adapt to using an artificial limb. He managed to reach the stage on 2 October where he went on furlough until 16 October.
Then on 1 November 1917 Harry bid farewell to the Old Dart when he boarded A69 HMAT Anchises to return to Australia, disembarking at Fremantle on 25 December 1917. It seems he underwent treatment in Perth until his discharge from the AIF that took place on 24 March 1918. Harry’s service was recognised by the issue of the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
In the 1921 Electoral Roll Kitty Neille is a married woman living at Glyde Street, Bayswater, Maylands. In 1925 Kitty Neille is performing home duties at Laurence Street, Bayswater. Harry’s address was still the Trans Railway Depot, Parkeston, Kalgoorlie.
In 1931 Kitty Neille is performing home duties at 146 Goderich Street, East Perth. Harry was a pensioner living at Widgie Road, North Bayswater.
The 1936 Electoral Roll records Kitty Neille is performing home duties at 75 Matlock Street, Balkatta. Also at 75 Matlock Street is Irene Mabel Neille, typiste. Harry was a pensioner living at Widgie Road, North Bayswater.
There is a record that Kitty Neille re-married in 1941 in Perth, WA (Certificate 1941-2704).
Harry Neille died in Perth on 23 June 1942.
The records at Karrakatta Cemetery record that Harry Neille died on 23 June 1942 at Morley Park, aged 81 years. He was buried in the Anglican area, Section LB, gravesite 0551A.
SAPPER CHARLES ARTHUR NEILLE
5011 – 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company
Charles Arthur (Charlie) Neille was born at St Arnaud, Victoria 1883 to George James and Eliza (nee Murch) Neille. St Arnaud is a town some 110 kilometres northwest of Ballarat and was then the centre of a gold mining area that extended from Avoca to Donald. Charlie became a miner by occupation and as the gold mining in Victoria slowed down it seems the family moved to Western Australia to take up work in mines in the Kalgoorlie area. When Charlie was some 25 years old he met and wooed Mary Ann Grimes and they were married at East Coolgardie sometime in 1908.
In 1906 through 1910 Charles was a miner at Davyhurst, Coolgardie, Western Australia. From 1912 Charles was mining at Woolgar and Mary Ann was living at Daveyhurst.
Australia entered the war against Germany and Austria in August 1914 and the Australian Imperial Force – AIF - was formed and was in action at Gallipoli in 1915. In May 1915 an Anzac mining unit of some 260 infantrymen with mining experience was hurriedly put together in the field to counter Turkish mining operations at Quinn’s Post. It was decided in Australia to form a specialist Mining Corps with experienced engineers and miners and properly equipped for mining operations.
Lieutenant Leslie Coulter, a former mining engineer with Mt Lyell Mines, was sent from Sydney to West Australia in November 1915 to recruit experienced miners of ‘skilled and of sound physique’ to form a third Mining Company. He returned to Sydney on 26 December 1915 with 274 recruits who had embarked with him at Fremantle on SS Indarra on 18 December. They went into camp at Casula and joined some Tasmanians and became the 3rd Mining Company.
Meanwhile in Western Australia a number of Miners hearing about the recruitment drive began to consider whether they might join the AIF and make available their mining experience. One was Harry Neille. Another was Charlie Neille. Charlie fronted for a medical examination at Kalgoorlie on 22 February 1916, was found fit for service and instructed to report to the AIF Camp at Blackboy Hill near Perth. He did so, completed his attestation recording he was born at St Arnaud, Victoria, was aged 33 years, a miner by occupation, was married with four Children and the address of his wife Mary A was c/o Post Office Menzies (some 100 kms north of Kalgoorlie. On 6 June 1916 his wife’s address was changed to 351 Newcastle Street Perth and then on 16 August 1917 to 35 Lake Street Perth).
He was enlisted on 3 March 1916, allotted Service no 4439, given the rank of Private and posted to 53 Depot at Blackboy Hill to undertake his induction into the AIF.
The Mining Corps with its 1st Reinforcements reached Fremantle on the way to France aboard A38 HMAT Ulysses in March and Charlie no doubt was present at a ceremonial parade on 7 March 1916 where the Corps was presented a flag by the Kalgoorlie Mining Fraternity. Several Officers left the ship charged with the responsibility of recruiting a 6th Mining Company. On departing Fremantle on 8 March 1916 the Ulysses ran aground and the Mining Corps camped at Blackboy Hill until repairs were completed and the Corps left Fremantle on 1 April 1916. So the Neilles would have been interested observers of the Mining Corps members.