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The memory of three Gordonvale men killed during World War I will live on at the Gordonvale Hospital, where a commemorative plaque made in their honour will be unveiled on the eve of Anzac Day. Brothers Sergeant-Major William O’Neill and Lieutenant Gordon O’Neill were among 20 soldiers from the Gordonvale area who enlisted in the Queensland-raised 15th Battalion at the outbreak of the war. Both made the ultimate sacrifice along with one other Gordonvale soldier by the surname Griffin, although not much is known about him.

When the trio didn’t return, the O’Neill brothers’ parents, Edith and James, set about raising £4000 to build a hospital in their honour.  The eight-bed Gordonvale Soldiers War Memorial Hospital was finally built in the 1920s and, in a kind gesture to the then tiny Far Northern town, it was officially opened by Australian governor-general John Baird, also known as Lord Stonehaven. A short time later, a marble plaque unveiled by him and displayed at the front gate of the hospital disappeared.

It was not until the present Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chairman, Bob Norman, found the stone – wedged behind a filing cabinet – two years ago that the hospital’s true history has been revived.

The Gordonvale community, including long-serving nurses Fae Morgan and Tracey Johnson, will gather next Friday at 9.30am to once again unveil the commemorative plaque. Ms Morgan said it was a privilege to work at a hospital that honoured fallen Anzacs.
The Cairns Post (Qld.), 17 April 2015.