John MCPHAIL
John McPhail was born on 18 January 1882 in Strathpeffer, Scotland. His parents were Alexander and Marjory (née McIntosh) McPhail. He attended Scotch in 1899. In 1899 John was in the First Teams in cricket and football. The cricket team won the premiership that year, in which according to The Scotch Collegian, he came to Scotch to do ‘Senior work at the Honours Matriculation exam.’ The J McPhail Language Prize is named after him.
John was an accountant when he enlisted on 11 March 1915 at Melbourne. He served in the 6th Battalion with the rank of Lance Corporal. His Regimental Number was 2207.
John died on 11 August 1915 in Mudros, Lemnos Island, Greece. He was 33 years of age.
Service record
John McPhail had worked in Western Australia and then for five years in Nicaragua before returning to Australia in 1914. Within a week of enlistment, at age 33, he was promoted to Lance Corporal. He embarked as a reinforcement in June 1915 and joined the 6th Battalion on Gallipoli on 6 or 7 August 1915.
On 8 August he was severely wounded, with a ‘shattered leg’, in the fierce fighting at Lone Pine. He went to a Casualty Clearing Station at Anzac and then on to ‘base’ (see document reproduced below). On 11 August, just days after joining his unit, he died of wounds (gunshot wound tibia) in the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Mudros on the island of Lemnos. Old boy Roy McIndoe may have been working in the operating theatre at this time.
John’s service file contains a poignant letter from his mother to the Minister of Defence asking for further news – she had only heard that he was wounded (see below). A letter confirming his death was sent on 15 December.
John McPhail is buried in the Portianos Military Cemetery, Lemnos, Greece.
Photographs and Documents:
From National Archives, B2455 service record
Letter from John’s mother
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
- National Archives of Australia – B2455, MCPHAIL J
- Scotch Collegian 1915
- The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=204474
