Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

This submission is based on his service history, the unit history from the Australian national archives and family biographies.
Private Harold Myles Cleland Died of Wounds he received during the Battle of Hamel, 4 July 1918. His unit, the 22 Machine Gun Company was part of the 6 Australian Brigade, providing suppressive barrage fire at the outset of the attack at 0315 hours. After the operation was successfully concluded 93 minutes later his gun team moved forward in the vicinity of Hamel village to cover the positions captured during the advance. While they were digging in Private Cleland was hit by shrapnel to the helmet which initially knocked him unconscious. He came to shortly afterwards and was sent to the rear on foot to a dressing station. He came across stretcher bearers who took him to the Embankment Casualty Clearing Station in Villers-Bretonneux. This was 200 metres to the west of the current Adelaide Cemetery. He died later that day from a Cerebral Lesion, and buried nearby. In October 1919 his remains were exhumed from Embankment cemetery and re-interred at Adelaide Cemetery Plot 3, Row G Grave 22 where he now lies. Harold Miles was the youngest son of the well known Adelaide winemaker George Fullerton Cleland. His uncle was the Judge and Barrister Edward Erskine Cleland K.C. His older cousin was the renowned Australian naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist Sir John Burton Cleland C.B.E. (1878-1971, whom the Cleland Conservation Park on Mount Lofty, Adelaide Hills is named after.