Wendell was born on the 12th of May 1870, in Portsmouth, Virginia, where he grew up and also received an appointment to the US Naval Academy. No one in his district had sought an appointment to the Academy that year so it defaulted to him and he arrived in Annapolis in 1886. He graduated the Academy in 1890 and served his mandatory two years on a warship at sea, after which he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. When the Spanish-American War began, Wendell was deployed to Cuba and his actions under fire there earned him a brevet promotion to Captain in June of 1898. When the Brevet Medal was created in 1921, he would also receive it for his actions at Guantanamo Bay. When the Boxer Rebellion took place, Wendell, now at the permanent rank of Captain, was deployed to China to relieve troops in Peking and fought in four battles there. He briefly served as the military governor of Basilan Province in the Philippines before assignments in Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, and Hawaii during the Banana Wars.

Wendell deployed to Vera Cruz as a Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 2nd Advance Base Regiment and his actions there would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

For distinguished conduct in battle engagements of Vera Cruz, 21-22 April 1914. In command of the 2d Regiment Marines, Lt. Col. Neville was in both days' fighting and almost continually under fire from soon after landing, about noon on the 21st, until we were in possession of the city, about noon of the 22d. His duties required him to be at points of great danger in directing his officers and men, and he exhibited conspicuous courage, coolness, and skill in his conduct of the fighting. Upon his courage and skill depended, in great measure, success or failure. His responsibilities were great, and he net them in a manner worthy of commendation.

Wendell became one of three people to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Brevet Medal, the other two being Smedley Butler and David Porter, and after the conflict, he returned to China to command the Allied guard at Peking for two years. Nine months after the US entered into World War 1, Wendell was placed in command of the 5th Marine Regiment in France and moved the regiment into Belleau Wood to stop Germany’s move. He then took command of the 4th Marine Brigade, which consisted of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments, until the end of the war. He remained in Europe as part of the Army of Occupation as a Brigadier General and returned to the States in July of 1919 and was promoted to Major General a year later, becoming the assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In addition to being the commanding General of the Fleet Marine Force in San Francisco, he also commanded the Marine Barracks in Quantico, Virginia, and on the 5th of March 1929, Wendell succeeded Major General John Lejeune as the 14th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Wendell Cushing Neville died suddenly on the 8th of July 1930 at the age of 60 and he is buried with his wife Frances in Arlington National Cemetery: Section 6, Lot 8409.