Military Medal : Corporal J O'Donnell, 4 Pioneer Battalion, AIF

Military Medal (Geo V). Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

John O'Donnell was a 23 year old labourer from Junee, New South Wales when he travelled to Sydney to enlist in the AIF, on 18 November 1914. He was assigned as a private, with the service number 1385, to the 2nd reinforcements of 13 Battalion. After initial training he embarked for Egypt with his unit aboard HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 11 February 1915. The battalion re-embarked from Alexandria for service on Gallipoli on 13 April, travelling via Lemnos, and landed at Anzac in the afternoon of 25 April.

On 10 May, while in position at Pope's Hill, 13 Battalion was asked to send troops to support an action at Quinn's Post. A platoon from D Company, of which O'Donnell was a member, was despatched and took part in a bayonet charge at 2.30 am. The platoon lost 2 men killed, 2 missing and 15 wounded in the charge. O'Donnell was among the wounded, suffering a gun shot wound to the shoulder. He was evacuated to Egypt for treatment, rejoining the battalion on Gallipoli late in June. On 31 July, O'Donnell, by now a corporal, was again evacuated to Egypt, suffering from dysentery and later, conjunctivitis. He remained in Egypt and in March 1916 transferred to 4 Pioneer Battalion.

O'Donnell moved with his unit to France for service on the Western Front. He received a gun shot wound to the face on 6 August while undertaking work to widen and strengthen Tramway Trench at Pozieres, and was evacuated for treatment to the Trench Bridge Military Hospital in England, which was housed in the pavilion at the cricket ground. Released from hospital in late October, O'Donnell undertook training in England and France before rejoining his battalion in February 1917. He was awarded the Military Medal for an action during the Battle of Messines in June. The recommendation for the award reads, 'On the afternoon of 7th June 1917 he accompanied his Platoon Officer in siting a new Communications Trench up to GREEN LINE in front of MESSINES. In order to carry this out they had to pass through several [artillery] barrages and over country swept by machine gun fire and in full observation of the enemy. Later he took information back over the same country, and after dark he guided two Companies on to the work.'

In September 1917 O'Donnell was promoted to sergeant. He was hospitalised on 31 October, rejoining his unit on 18 December. Apart from a month training at the Royal Engineers School at Rouen in August 1918 he remained with the battalion until the end of the war. He left to return to Australia aboard the transport, Burmah on 14 December 1918.