Next of kin: Agnes Emma McConnell (sister), Dalton Street, Orange
Date of enlistment: 4 August 1915
Place of enlistment: Liverpool
Age at enlistment: 31
Fate: Embarked HMAT A38 "Ulysses", Sydney, 20 February 1916. Proceeded to Marseilles 5 May 1916. Admitted to 8th Field Ambulance with synovitis of the left knee, 24 May 1916. Rejoined unit, Etaples, 23 June 1916. Admitted to 21st Field Ambulance with shrapnel wounds to the legs and feet 16 October 1916. Admitted to Edmonton Military Hospital, England, 29 October 1916. Granted furlough from 6 January 1917 to 22 January 1917. Admitted to Parkhouse Hospital with mumps 19 February 1917. Returned to duty 4 April 1917. Proceeded to France 10 May 1917. Rejoined unit in France 17 May 1917. Admitted to Field Ambulance with diarrhoea 16 September 1917. Discharged to duty 18 September 1917. Marched in to Weymouth, England, from France 13 December 1918. Embarked HS "Margha" for return to Australia 18 January 1919. Disembarked, Sydney, 9 March 1919. Discharged from AIF 23 April 1919.
Date of death: 11 July 1968, aged 85
Buried: Orange Cemetery, Church of England Section W, Grave 301
Donald McConnell was born in Orange in 1882, the youngest son of John McConnell and his wife Sarah. Donald and his older brother Charles Cornelius McConnell enlisted together on 4 August 1915 and were assigned to the 1st Australian Mining Corps as sappers. The brothers embarked HMAT A38 "Ulysses" in Sydney on 20 February 1916.
Donald served in England and France. On 22 May 1916 he was marching back from the trenches when he slipped and fell into a ditch, resulting in synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane) of the left knee. He spent a month recovering, rejoining his unit in Etaples on 23 June.
Sapper McConnell was hospitalised on several occasions during his military service. In October 1916 he received shrapnel wounds to the legs and feet and was evacuated to Edmonton Military Hospital in England. In February 1917 he was admitted to Parkhouse Hospital suffering from mumps.
Donald served for more than three and a half years. He returned to Australia in March 1919 and was discharged from the AIF the following month.
Donald returned to Orange, but later moved to Bathurst. During the 1930s he was employed as a linesman by the PMG Department. He never married.
In October 1965 Donald's niece wrote to the Army Records Office:
"Would you kindly send me the record of Sapper Donald McConnell from World War One. He enlisted from Orange and saw service overseas. He is a very old man now. Been 85 and single; all his family have died. I am his niece. He is in a home for the aged and should anything happen to him I want him buried by the returned servicemen here and give him a Soldier's Funeral. He's forgotten anything about the war now so perhaps you could help. I wrote to the sub branch at Orange but they have no records and told me to write to Melbourne."
Donald McConnell died on 11 July 1968, aged 85. He is buried in the Orange Cemetery, Church of England section. Donald is commemorated on the Holy Trinity Church Orange Honour Roll.
Donald's brother, Charles Cornelius McConnell, died of disease whilst serving in WWI. A cousin, Alfred Allen McConnell also served in WWI; he returned to Australia in June 1918.
