Walter McNicoll

Brigadier General Sir Walter Ramsay McNicoll, (27 May 1877 – 24 December 1947) was an Australian soldier, politician and public servant. He was administrator of the Territory of New Guinea from 1934 to 1942.

Early life McNicoll was born in the Melbourne suburb of Emerald Hill, on 27 May 1877. He was the only son and eldest of three children to William Walter Alexander McNicoll (1852–1937) and Ellen McNicoll (née Ramsay, 1852–1900). He trained as a teacher in the Victorian Education Department and at Melbourne University. He held posts in various country schools in Victoria, then as a senior master at Melbourne High School and, from 1911 to 1914, founding principal of Geelong High School. At the same time, he had been active in the Victorian militia, which at the outbreak of the First World War became part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

First World War As a lieutenant colonel, McNicoll commanded the 6th Battalion, 2nd Australian Brigade, at Gallipoli and was seriously wounded during an infantry charge in the Second Battle of Krithia on 8 May 1915. The brigade suffered 36 percent casualties in the course of two hours of action. He was found on the battlefield that evening by Charles Bean, then a war correspondent—later, Australia's official war historian. Bean piled discarded packs around McNicoll as protection against the still-continuing small arms fire and returned in the night with a stretcher party. McNicoll was invalided to Alexandria and then to London, where a second operation finally located and removed the bullet from his abdomen.

Following a year's recuperation in Melbourne, McNicoll was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 10th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Division—under the command of Major General John Monash and, later, John Gellibrand. From December 1916 to the armistice nearly two years later, the brigade was part of numerous actions on the Western Front, including Messines, Ypres, the Somme, and Amiens.

McNicoll died in Sydney on 24 December 1947, aged 70 years.