Ancestor Details
Name of Ancestor: George Harris Heaney
Ancestor's date of birth: 1845
Ancestor's date of death: 13/03/1912
Cause of Death: Passed away in Ipswich Qld
Service Number: Officer - no number.
Colony or State of enlistment: SA, Place of Enlistment: Adelaide
Unit: 5th South Australian Imperial Bushman-OC Horses for the voyage.
Rank attained in Boer War: MAJ, Date Effective: 1896
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No record of post Boer War service.
Murray Page: Not recorded in Murray
Contingent: Sailed with 5th South Australian Contingent.
Ship: Teviotdale, Date of Sailing: 10/02/1901
Other Boer War Service: Prince of Wales' Light Horse, Orange River Scouts (South African units).
Memorial details: Interred at Ipswich Cemetery
Awards/Decorations: QSA with Clasps South Africa 1901, Orange Free State, Cape Colony,Transvaal, South Africa 1902. VD-Volunteer Decoration.
Personal Characteristics: Migrated to Australia 1866 and was instrumental in forming 2nd York Peninsulia Volunteer Rifle Company in 1881, was promoted Major in 1896.
Reasons to go and fight: To be with his son and partoitism.
Details of service in war: OC (voyage only) 5SAIB Admin Party, Served with the Prince of Wales Light Horse (a South African Unit) 9 April 1901 to 10 November 1901 (joined PWLH as a Lieutenant with his son Roderick). Then served with Orange River Scouts 20 March 1902 to 30 June 1902.
Service and life after the Boer War: Moved to Ipswitch, Queensland.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Dorothy Farlow, Hay NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: Grand Daughter
Biographical Notes:
Major G W 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 guard of honour to receive the Princess Alexandra at Gravesend prior to her marriage with 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 Germein.
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. He accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in Prince of Wales Light Horse to serve in the field and remain with his son.
After returning from the war he moved to Ipswich in Queensland where he died in 1912
