Major George Harris Heaney, VD

By MAJ (RAE) Chris Moon, Leader Qld Detachment Legion of Frontiersmen Australia

5th South Australian Imperial Bushmen

Commandant, Cape Town, Legion of Frontiersmen

Chief Organising Officer, Queensland Command, Legion of Frontiersmen

Major G. H. Heaney was educated at Woolwich, Kent, England, and was for seven years in the Royal Arsenal under Colonels Tulloch and Clarke and was in the Construction School. At the early age of sixteen, he was enrolled in the 10th, now the 3rd Kent Royal Arsenal Artillery, and served for 5 years under Colonel Ellis, with Major Cheetham as Adjutant. Whilst with this Corps he had the honour of being one of the guards of honour to receive the Princess Alexandra at Gravesend prior to her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

Arriving in South Australia when the military spirit seemed to a great extent to have died out, he had no opportunity of being identified with the military movement until the formation of the National Rifle Association. Then in 1881 he formed the Yorke’s Peninsula No 2 Company and also the Minlaton and Curramulka Companies and was appointed Senior Lieutenant, Captain J Waddell being in command. Subsequently, he was attached to the Quorn Company as the Adjutant of the North Battalion R V F. In 1887 by order of Colonel Owen, then Commandant in South Australia, he enrolled the Mounted Rifles in the North, forming the Hammond, Quorn, Booleunda, Port Augusta, Gordon, Wilmington, Carrieton, Eurelia, Johnsburg and Pamatta Divisions and was appointed Captain and Adjutant to the new force. He retained this Position until, after examination in Adelaide, he was promoted to the rank of Major.

Being appointed to the Local and Magistrates Courts of Port Pirie in conjunction with Major Catt of Gladstone, he formed the Port Pirie Mounted Rifles and Infantry Company, including Wandearah and Port Germain.

During the Russian War scare Major Heaney, then a Lieutenant formed a troop of Mounted Rifles, the members being kangaroo or scalp hunters, who offered to serve with horses and arms, but the offer was declined on the grounds that, being at the Blinman, they were too far removed from the city and railway line, the latter being twenty-two miles distant.

As a rifleman, Major Heaney is well known to the senior riflemen of South Australia as a leading shot and medal and prize winner. Adelaide Observer 3 Sept 1898 p16.

Originally selected as an officer for the ‘voyage only’ for the Fifth SA contingent and led the administrative party for that contingent. Ship: Teviotdale, date of Sailing: 10/02/1901. He accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in Prince of Wales Light Horse to serve in the field and remain with his son.

Awards/Decorations:

Queens South Africa Medal, Clasps:

South Africa 1901

Orange Free State

Cape Colony

Transvaal

South Africa 1902

Volunteer Officers Decoration (VD)

Mentioned in Dispatches.

Details of service in war: OC (voyage only) 5 SAIB Admin Party, served with the Prince of Wales Light Horse (a South African Unit) from 9 April 1901 to 10 November 1901 (joined PWLH as a Lieutenant with his son Roderick). Then served with Orange River Scouts from 20 March 1902 to 30 June 1902.

Legion of Frontiersmen

In 1908, he was appointed Organising Officer, and subsequently Commandant of Cape Town Command, Legion of Frontiersmen.

After returning from the war, he moved to Ipswich in Queensland where in 1911 he was appointed Organising Officer for the Ipswich Command, then Chief Organising Officer and Deputy Leader, Queensland Command, Legion of Frontiersmen. He died on 13 March 1912 and is buried in the Ipswich Cemetery, Queensland.