Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

STRACHAN James Charles Power MB BS

1889-1959

James Charles Power Strachan was born on 10th November 1889 in North Adelaide, the second son of a merchant, Roland Strachan, and his wife Edith Maud, nee Tuckett. He was educated at St Peter’s College and served in the school cadets from 1906 to 1908, rising to the rank of 2nd lieutenant, before entering the University of Adelaide where he studied medicine.  He graduated in 1914.

Strachan applied for a commission in the AIF on the 3rd March 1915.  He was 25 years, single, 6ft tall, weighed 160lbs, and his father, of 172 Childers St, North Adelaide, was his next of kin. Strachan was sent to Egypt with reinforcements for 1 AGH, but immediately on arrival transferred to B Section of 7 FdAmb. He went to Gallipoli in September, where his unit relieved 4 FdAmb at Walden Grove. He spent some weeks detached to 1 LHFA. He was evacuated to Egypt in November with influenza but rejoined 7 FdAmb at the beginning of December. After several brief attachments to infantry Bns, he went to France with 7 FdAmb in March 1916. During the early stages of the Somme offensive, Strachan was briefly attached to 3 ACCS, but in August he was posted as RMO of 26 Bn. He was with the Bn through the series of unsuccessful attacks on Mouquet Farm.  A month later he was evacuated with trench fever. He returned to the Bn in October as it moved back to the Somme from Ypres, and in time for the Battle of Flers and the attack on The Maze in November. Strachan again fell ill in Jan 1917, this time with mumps. After a variety of short term postings in the rear echelons, he was promoted major and posted to 16 FdAmb in 6 Div. After the losses of Bullecourt and Messines, the formation of 6 Div was abandoned, and Strachan was sent to 14 FdAmb which had lost three officers during the attacks on Polygon Wood. He remained with the unit until after the successful capture of Villers-Bretonneux on April 25th 1918. He was then recalled to England and posted to 1 ADH at Bulford on the Salisbury Plain, where he married Eleanor Marjory Isabel Tapp from Bath, Somerset in June 1918. Strachan obtained leave to attend a course at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin after the Armistice. His appointment in the AIF was terminated at the 4th MD on the 13th February 1920. He was issued with the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Strachan’s older brother Captain William Leighton Strachan (6 Bn), aged 27 years, was killed on Bolton’s Ridge on the 25th April 1915, a short time after the landing at Anzac Cove.

Strachan returned to Australia in October 1919 with his wife and first child, David Edgar who had been born in Salisbury in June. The family moved to Creswick, Victoria in 1920, where he set up practice.  Strachan and his wife featured many times in the social pages of the newspaper. James Charles Power Strachan died in Creswick in 1959. He was survived by his wife and son. Strachan’s son David Strachan, a celebrated Australian painter, was killed in a car accident in 1970.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australia, who Served in World War 1. 

Verco, Summers, Swain, Jelly. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2014. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD