Background
John McNeaney was born on 30 May 1897, the son of John and Mary Elizabeth McNeaney.
John McNeaney was born on 30 May 1897, the son of John and Mary Elizabeth McNeaney.
He was credited with five aerial victories. John McNeaney was the only Canadian Sopwith Dolphin Ace. Commissioned in August 1917, he flew with Number.
79 Squadron Royal Air Force, flying the Sopwith Dolphin and successfully claimed four German Fokker Doctorate.VIIs and a Halberstadt C destroyed.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after he and two others engaged about ten Fokker Doctorate.VIIs near Paschendale in Belgium on 28 September 1918. Four Fokkers were claimed destroyed, two accounted for by McNeaney was wounded in June 1918 while on a trench strafing sortie.
After cessation of hostilities, John was posted to Germany as part of the forces of occupation. He contracted influenza and was brought back to England.
He died on 1 March 1919 and was buried at Fulham Old Cemetery in West London, just south of Hammersmith Bridge.
His grave has been marked by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which has erected a headstone. On 28 September, in company with two other machines, he engaged about ten Fokkers. Four of these were destroyed, two by.