Paddy McGuinness (Australian footballer)

Patrick “Paddy” McGuinness (1878 — 6 May 1918) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He died of the wounds he had received in active service in France in World War I.

Family
Son of Hugh and Ellen McGuinness, née Twomey, he was born in Euroa, Victoria in 1878. He was a bright student, gaining his matriculation in 1894.

Footballer
He played one senior match for St Kilda, against Essendon, at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, on Saturday, 22 June 1901 (round nine), in which Essendon thrashed St Kilda 4.5 (29) to 19.22 (136). He was one of three first-game St Kilda players on that day; the other two, Ern Aurish and Lawrie Delaney would only play one and two senior games respectively themselves. McGuiness could not have played very well; he is not mentioned in the match reports.

Soldier
He enlisted in the First AIF on 4 January 1917, giving his occupation as schoolteacher, and his status as single.

He began his service on 12 February 1917.

Death
He was badly wounded in the left hip (a gunshot wound in the left thigh and a fractured pelvis), in action with the 51st Battalion, on 27 April 1918. He died of his wounds, with acute septicaemia, in military hospital, in France on 6 May 1918.

Remembered
He is buried at the Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Tréport, France, on 8 May 1918; and his name is located at panel 153 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial.