Born at Twickenham, London, Cannell was a 21 year old teacher when he enlisted in the AIF on 19 August 1914. Embarked at Sydney 17 December 1915 per A35 Berrima. He was assigned to Brigade Headquarters and in 1915 was discharged from the AIF to take a commission in the 1st Duke of York Lancers based in India. He was assigned as a pilot to the Royal Flying Corp which later became the Royal Air Force. He was shot down in Mesopotamia, now modern Iraq, on 31 October 1918, the very day on which Turkey surrendered and eleven days before the Armistice in Europe. The details of Cannell’s war service are in British files, unseen for this book, and his Australian file relates the transfer of his private possessions to his mother, Eva Cannell who, after 1918, resided at Nailsworth Rd, Cottesloe. Hugh’s father, Cameron Cannell, was a sergeant with the AIF. Hugh Cannell’s will named as his executrix a London friend, Heather Blagrove of the Ladies University Club London, and gave some papers into her care. His possessions, however, were at the Unit headquarters in India and getting these to his mother occupied two years and almost 100 pages of forms and letters seen in his original file. Service medals:1914-15 Star, BWM, and VM. His cousin, Reginald Cannell, also of his home town Needilup, was killed at Gallipoli on 9 May 1915.
