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The Soldiers |
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Major/Lt
Colonel.R.B. Neil |
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Redmond
Barry Neil, as a teenager, not only served in the Boer War, but also on
the North West Frontier in India. By
January 1913 R.B.Neil now a 33 year old Captain was on the reserve of
officers, on the staff of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish
Fusiliers. On
the 5th June 1916, now a Major /Temporary Lieutenant Colonel,
R.B.Neil took over the command of the “Leeds Pals” From Lt Colonel C
Dewhurst who had been wounded 2 days earlier. On
the 1st July Lt Colonel Neil lead the “Pals” into the
battle of the Somme, and although wounded in the first minutes tried to
press on, a second wound shortly after forced his return to the trenches
from where he was taken to a Casualty clearing station behind the lines
and eventually evacuated to Hospital in England, after a long stay in
Hospital he was invalided out of the army in late 1916. After the war he returned to New Zealand, where he died shortly before the 2nd World War. |
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