Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Michael John O’Neill, RAN

Michael John (Jack) O’Neill, born on 7 December 1872 was a first generation Australian, the son of Irish Anglican parents who had migrated separately to Melbourne in the 1860s from Waterford (father) and Dublin (mother), married in 1866 and settled in Williamstown. Jack went to school in Williamstown State School and then worked as a jockey, in Melbourne, for Mr R. Bradfield.

He joined the Victorian Colonial Navy as Boy on 26 August 1889 and in the 1890s he advanced to the ratings of Ordinary Seaman and Able Seaman. He was noted for his physical fitness and gymnastic ability. He was 5 feet 8 inches in height.

He volunteered for service with the China Field Force in 1900 and departed as a member of the Victorian Contingent in the troopship SS Salamis from Melbourne on 31 July 1900. Before departure he married Martha Louisa Lucas on 13 July. After embarking the New South Wales Contingent in Sydney, the Australians arrived at Taku, China, on 15 September. Because the forts previously held by the Boxers at Taku had been captured by allied forces just before the Australians’ arrival, the two contingents were moved to Tientsin next day. After serving as police and firemen in Tientsin, the Victorian contingent took part in an expedition to Paoting-Fu, eighty miles to the west. Jack O’Neill helped to relieve an acute manpower shortage in the accompanying Royal Horse Artillery. Having been afflicted by sickness, the RHA called for volunteers from other contingents who could ride. Jack volunteered. As a former jockey, he passed the acceptance tests with flying colours and served as a “horse gunner” with inland relief and punishment expeditions.

The Victorian and New South Wales Contingents returned to Australia in the SS Chingtu, leaving on 27 March 1901. Held in quarantine at Sydney for a week on account of a case of smallpox, the Victorian Contingent arrived in Melbourne by train on 4 May.

During the period from the Boxer Rebellion to the First World War, Jack O’Neill continued to advance through higher ratings of Seaman Gunner, Torpedoman and Qualified Signalman. He became a skilled boxer, winning the medium weight championship of the Victorian Navy in 1908. He also took part in gymnastic exhibitions. In 1910 he transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on its foundation and was promoted to Chief Petty Officer.

When the First World War began, Jack had a part in an important capture by the RAN – the German mercantile code book. He was a member of the Port Examination Service, stationed at Portsea. On 11 August Jack was a member of the boarding party which searched the SS Hobart, a German merchant ship which had arrived off Port Phillip Heads unaware that war had broken out. The Hobart had been tracked by its radio messages and the RAN was ready and waiting for it when it arrived. The commander of the reception party, Captain John Richardson, and his men, disguised as quarantine officials, were able to bluff their way on board. Once they were sure that the Hobart was under the guns of Fort Nepean, they asserted control and the Germans accepted the situation. As they had hoped, they were able to capture the ship’s code book intact when the German captain was discovered unlocking a secret safe where it had been stored.  The mercantile code was used between German warships and German merchant ships as well as for purely mercantile traffic, so its capture by the RAN in the first week of the war was a major coup. It took several weeks for code-breakers under Senior Naval Instructor F.W.Wheatley to be able to read the encoded German traffic, but when they proved successful they sent the results to the Admiralty in London by destroyer. The package arrived not long before the battle of the Falklands in December 1914 and proved very useful then and later during the war as German merchant ships and warships were tracked down and captured.

Thereafter Jack O’Neill had a frustrating war. Because he was a good instructor, and the RAN was in a major phase of expansion, his services were in demand at home and he was unable to get a sea-going posting, despite his making several attempts to obtain one. He served mostly in Geelong, combining Examination Service and instructional duties. After the war he was promoted to Warrant Officer Instructor and served as Sub District Naval Officer at Port Fairy. He then returned to Port Melbourne and in 1928 was promoted to Commissioned Instructor. He retired on 6 December 1931 in compliance with cuts introduced by the Financial Emergency Act of the Federal government.

In retirement he ran a small petrol station in Wattletree Road, Malvern, until petrol rationing introduced early in the course of the Second World War put him out of business. He then returned to service as a civilian in the Navy Office, Melbourne, until the most threatening stages of the war had passed.

He remained in touch with many old shipmates and former trainees, and died on 18 February 1954, at the age of  81, having spent forty two years in the Naval service of Victoria and Australia. At his funeral several old mates from the China Field Force took part, bearing the flag of the Ex-Navalmen’s Association, and made moving tributes to Jack’s commitment and his personal qualities.

Robert O’Neill

Grandson of Michael John O’Neill

28 March 2016