There Would I Die

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The First Australian Horse on the Roll of Honour

Henry C Moulds

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On the Roll of Honour panels that record those who died in the conflicts between 1885 and 1902, the last of these conflicts is the South African (Boer) War from 1899 to 1902. One unit involved in that war was the First Australian Horse. Beneath that title there are eleven names, one of which is Mackellar KK.

Keith Kinnaird Mackellar was born in July 1880 at Point Piper, in Sydney. His father, Dr Charles Kinnaird Mackellar was a physician and at the time was the Director of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Mackellar was one of four children. His sister, Isobel Marion Dorothea, whom he was especially close to, later became a well-known and respected poet and fiction writer.

The Mackellar children appear to have led a privileged childhood, including mixing in the well-known family’s elite circles. Mackellar began exchanging letters with his sister Dorothea from an early age. They reveal a shared love of the natural world. Dorothea treasured his letters her whole life.

Mackellar, educated at Sydney Grammar School, showed an early interest in a military career. In March 1898 he was commissioned into a volunteer mounted unit. In December 1899, the Sydney Daily Telegraph recorded that Lieutenant Mackellar had volunteered unconditionally for service in the war in South Africa. He had applied for service in a British Army unit, but it had already been sent to South Africa. Mackellar then joined the 1st Australian Horse and sailed for South Africa in January 1900. He hoped that, upon his arrival, he would join the British 7th (Princess Royal) Dragoons at the front.

Although initially quite enthusiastic, Mackellar’s outlook soon began to change. One major challenge the men faced was the prevalence of disease. Mackellar himself was hospitalised with severe enteric fever. A few weeks later his longed-for commission with the 7th Dragoons was gazetted, but he was not permitted to leave the hospital. After several requests to be released were refused, Mackellar simply left the hospital, and by June 1900 had joined the Dragoons.

Only a week before his twentieth birthday Keith Mackellar was killed in action in a skirmish near Derdepoort in Pretoria. His loss was felt keenly by those he had served with and was also a blow to his family, especially his sister. Dorothea’s first recorded poem ‘When It Comes’, is said to have been inspired by his death.

In 1905, three years after the Boer War ended, Dorothea prevailed upon her father to have Keith’s body brought home to Australia. At a cost of £1000 (today about $180,000), the return had to be arranged privately. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Australian war dead were returned home. The remains were transported in a container marked ‘Curios’, perhaps to avoid contact with any superstitious sailors who might find him. Mackellar now lies in Waverley Cemetery in the Mackellar family plot under a white marble cross from South Africa. Keith Mackellar is the only Australian who died in South Africa to be returned home. 

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