Alex McColl had been a key member of the Wellington College First XV in 1909 and was a talented all-round sportsman. Like many of his school mates he was quick to enlist when the war broke out. He led a platoon at a landing in Gallipoli in 1915, participating in much of the heavy fighting there. He was wounded but returned to active service and was present at the evacuation in December 1915.
One in four New Zealand men aged 20–45 was either killed or wounded in the First World War, but the impact of the war reached far beyond these individuals and directly affected most New Zealand families, communities, workplaces, schools and clubs.
