Private William James McKean, 29th Australian Infantry Battalion
Australian War MemorialWilliam McKean was born in December 1872 at Corindhap in regional Victoria. Known to his family and friends as Jim, he was one of 11 children born to Scottish immigrants William and Christina McKean.
In 1875, the family relocated to the newly-settled seaside town of Port Campbell, in Victoria’s Great South Coast region, where William’s father took up farming. The family remained here throughout Jim’s life. He and his siblings attended the Port Campbell State School, and after leaving school, Jim worked as a baker. He was an active member of the village at Port Campbell, including 14 years as member of the local rifle club.
Jim married Mary McCrae in 1900. Two years later, the couple took over running the family farm, known as “Roslin”. Jim and Mary had eight children: Leslie, Mary, Donald, William, Jock, Robert – who died in infancy – Elsie, and Ruby.
Jim was the first of four McKean brothers to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. Although he had promised Mary he would not leave her to manage on her own until their youngest daughter Ruby turned two, Jim signed his enlistment papers on the 9th of August 1915, two months shy of Ruby’s second birthday. Jim was 43 years old.
Entering camp at Royal Park in Melbourne, Jim was allotted to C Company of the newly-raised 29th Infantry Battalion. After three months of initial training, he departed Melbourne in the troopship Ascanius on 10 of November 1915, bound for Egypt.
Jim arrived in Egypt in early December 1915, and continued to train in the camps outside Cairo. His battalion left Egypt for the Western Front in mid-June.
After a quiet few weeks adapting to life in northern France, the 29th Battalion fought its first major battle at Fromelles in July. One soldier from the battalion wrote,
“The novelty of being a soldier wore off in about five seconds, it was like a bloody butcher’s shop.”
After the fighting, the 29th Battalion withdrew to billets in the town of Fleurbaix. Here, Jim was reunited with older brother John, who was taken on strength of the battalion, having enlisted in March 1916. By this stage, two of Jim’s other brothers, Alec and Norman, had also enlisted.
Jim and John remained together throughout August and September 1916, as the 29th Battalion alternated between manning the trenches and resting behind the lines in billets.
By early October, the battalion was holding the line in the trenches outside Armentieres. The unit diary for this period noted that “both the enemy’s and our artillery were active throughout.”
On 12 October, Jim was part of a small ration party tasked with picking up the battalion’s food. During their expedition, the enemy began to shell their lines. Eyewitnesses reported that Jim was “hit on the head by a piece of shell”, and “killed practically instantaneously” by “shrapnel in the chest”.
He was 45 years old.
Three weeks later, Private John McKean was also killed in action at Flers, “blown to pieces” by an explosive shell while having tea with his mates in the reserve trenches. Alec and Norman McKean survived the war, and returned home to their families around Port Campbell.
For Jim’s wife Mary, the tragedy of his loss was compounded by the death of her brother Thomas in June 1917.
Following Jim death, his grieving family inserted a short commemorative notice in the Melbourne Argus, which read: “Greater love hath no man than this.”
Jim’s remains were buried in Cite Bonjean Cemetery at Armentieres.
- AWM Roll of Honour https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1651612
