John Sneddon - Links to Carronshore
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4598 Private, 5th Pioneer Battalion, 5th Division, Australian Infantry
Age: 42
Date of death: 21.3.18
Buried: Wytschaete Military Cemetery Grave I.A.8
Family history: Son of Joseph and Jane Sneddon, Meadow View, Carronshore. He was born in Carronshore. He was employed for five years as an apprentice at the Carron Iron Works and was working as an Iron Dresser before he emigrated to Australia. He was living at 55 Suttor Street, Alexandria, Sydney when he enlisted on the 23 August 1915 in Liverpool, New South Wales. He was unmarried and listed his brother George who was living at Sneddon’s Building, Carronshore as his next of kin.
The 5th Pioneers were established on 10 March 1916, at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt, and were subsequently assigned to the 5th Division. He embarked for Egypt on 22 March 1916 and was taken on the strength of the 5th Pioneers on 13 May 1916 and sailed from Alexandria and landed in Marseilles on 25 June 1916. Trained as infantrymen, they were also tasked with some engineer functions, with a large number of personnel possessing trade qualifications from civilian life. As such, they were designated as pioneer units. The pioneer concept had existed within the British Indian Army before the war, but had not initially been adopted in other British Empire forces. In early 1916, the Australian Army was reorganised ahead of its transfer to the Western Front in Europe. A total of five pioneer battalions were raised by the AIF at this time, with one being assigned to each of the five infantry divisions that the Australians deployed to the battlefield in France and Belgium. Tasked with digging trenches, labouring, constructing strong points and light railways, and undertaking battlefield clearance, the troops assigned to the pioneers required construction and engineering experience in addition to basic soldiering skills.
On 9 June 1917 he went sick with influenza and was sent first to the Field Ambulance and then down the line to Rouen and then to England spending time in the 15th General Hospital in Birmingham and then in Dartford. After a period of convalescence and leave he rejoined the 5th Pioneers in the field on 19 October 1917.
Action leading to his death
The Battalion HQ was located at Spy Farm, Lindenhoek near Kemmel. The road from here links to Messines and then to Wytschaete which is where the Battalion was working on road repairs and wiring. The War Diary records that on the evening of 3 March 1918 there was a theft from the Peckham canteen till, near Wytschaete, of 200Fr. On the 21 March the enemy artillery was very active in the early morning with gas shells and at 6.30am the Battalion stood to arms in anticipation of an enemy attack which did not materialise and they stood down 7.30am. The gas shelling went on all morning and this interfered with their work on Corps support and reserve lines north of Wytschaete. They reported that work on a pill box near the hospice had not been completed. The War Diary records that one man was killed near Wytschaete.
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