Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arthur John McGregor was born on the 21st June 1917, the only son of Alice May McGregor (nee Kennett) and the late Pte. Arthur Ernest McGregor, of Old Mill, N.S.W (killed in action, WW1, 6th July 1918). After his father’s death, Arthur’s mother, Alice, remarried and he became a cherished stepson to William Ellis Jones. Born in Inverell, Arthur received his education in Sydney and later on returned to the Inverell district to follow the occupation of a miner. Returning to Sydney, he was then employed at a brick works factory.

Following his marriage to Joyce Andrews on the 8th November 1941, Pte. Arthur John McGregor enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Paddington, N.S.W on 3rd December 1941. He sailed with an early contingent of the A.I.F. for Malaya, embarking overseas from Sydney on 10th January 1942. Upon his arrival in Singapore on the 26th January 1942, he was posted to the 2/19th Battalion from where the last communication from him was received by his wife. Arthur’s service records show that he left Singapore for the island of Java on 11th February 1942 and was reported as missing in action on 15th February 1942.

For official purposes, he was reported as ‘presumed dead’, on the 9th March 1942, just shy of his 25th birthday and only four days before his daughter, Jeanette Joyce McGregor, was born. The circumstances behind Arthur’s death incredibly mirror that of his biological father’s (Arthur Ernest McGregor) from WW1. Like his father before him, Arthur John McGregor had married shortly before leaving for war, parting with a wife he didn’t realise was in her first trimester.

Arthur John McGregor’s body was never found. His name is enshrined on the Singapore War Memorial and on the Roll of Honour panels at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra (listed there, perhaps in error, under 2/20th Battalion). In the Canberra memorial, in the Commemorative Courtyard, his name is on a panel almost directly opposite the WW1 memorial panel where his father’s name is also honoured; this being yet another example of how his story and his father’s are mirrored.

Information for this story was sourced from personal family history, online service records and the following newspaper article located at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/263387919