HEANEY George Harris

5th South Australian Imperial Bushmen

Commandant, Legion of Frontiersmen, Cape Town, South Africa

Chief Organising Officer and Deputy Leader, Queensland Command, Legion of Frontiersmen

KNOWN AWARDS

Queens South Africa Medal

South Africa 1901, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, Transvaal, South Africa 1902

Volunteer Officers Decoration (VD)

Mention in Despatches

NOTES

Born 1845 England

Died 13 March 1912 Australia

Buried Ipswich Cemetery

It has been 109 years since the passing of the first Organising Officer, Queensland Command, Legion of Frontiersmen, Major George Harris Heaney, VD.  Major Heaney was born in 1845, and educated in Woolwich, Kent, England. At the age of 16 he was enlisted in the 10th, now the 3rd Kent Royal Arsenal Artillery where he served for five years. Moving to South Australia in 1866 he was involved in the formation of the 2nd York Peninsula Volunteer Rifle Company in 1891 and attained the rank of Major in 1896.  He enlisted in the 5th South Australian Imperial Bushman for the Boer War and was OC Horses for the voyage to South Africa.  During the war he served with the Prince of Wales Light Horse and the Orange River Scouts (South African units) and was Mentioned in Dispatches.  In 1908, he was appointed organising officer, and subsequently Commandant of the Cape Town Command of the Legion of Frontiersmen. After returning from the South Africa, he moved to Ipswich, Queensland where he was appointed Organising Officer for the Ipswich Command and then Chief Organising Officer and Deputy Leader for the Queensland Command, Legion of Frontiersmen.