Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

This was my grandfather. I remember reading his diary he kept during the Boer War. Here are a few excerpts from it. He suffered measles on the ship on the way over and enteric fever whilst in South Africa. It turned his hair temporarily grey. He was hospitalized with this on the night of a devastating attack on their camp and was thus spared as hospitals were never attacked then. He always listed the names and ranks of everyone who was killed throughout the war. He spent his 22nd birthday burying corpses. The entry reads in part "... many of whom presented a ghoulish aspect. What a way to spend a birthday." He tried to enlist in the Great War but was turned down. He later owned a grocery store in Percival Rd., Stanmore, NSW. He died in 1946. He married Myrtle Ivy Frances Black and had 2 children, Hardy McLean and Marie Ftances McLean.