Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William McClement was my maternal grandfather. He was born near Glasgow in Scotland in May 1895, the eldest of four children of his mother Margaret and father James McClement. James worked in a Clde River shipyard as a plater. In 1911, his mother brought her four children to live in Brisbane; I am still researching what happened to their father, and why he did not come to Australia.

William was apprenticed as a carpenter, and worked on coastal shipping along the east coast of Australia. Within a couple of weeks of the commencement of the War, in August 1914, William enlisted in the AIF. After a brief period of training, he embarked to Egypt, and thence to Gallipoli, where he landed with the Australian and New Zealand troops on 25 April 1915. He was evacuated from Gallipoli and was sent next to the Western Front. He survived the War, and returned to Australia in 1919.

In civilian life in Brisbane, he married my grandmother in 1921, and he joined the Brisbane Fire Brigade as a carpenter, eventually becoming the Works Superintendant for the Brigade. He and his wife Dolly had two daughters, and they lived for a number of years in the 1920s in upstairs quarters at the now-demolished Wooloongabba Fire Station. The family built and lived in a house in Coorparoo.

During WW2, my grandparents were hosts in their home to many of the American troops who passed through Brisbane, providing meals and entertainment as a gesture of goodwill and gratitude for their presence in Australia and in the war in the Pacific. They formed life-long friendships with some of the US troops, and their families in the US.

My grandfather's health declined after WW2, and this was attributed to his service in the Great War. He passed away in January 1954, and his ashes rest at the Mt Thompson Crematorium in Brisbane. Dolly passed away in 1976.

His living descendants now include his four grandchildren, four great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren, spread across Australia from Melbourne to Darwin and places in between.

His mother brought her children to Australia seeking a better life for them. She would be so proud to see how her family has worked and prospered since 1911.

RIP Granny McClement, RIP William and family.