GUNNER JOHN WILLIAM CHARLES MCGREGOR
AUSTRALIAN FIELD ARTILLERY
30TH NOVEMBER 1918 AGE 24
BURIED: ,
From his epitaph, I thought Gunner McGregor must have died of terrible wounds nineteen days after the end of the war so I was a bit surprised to discover that he'd died of broncho-pneumonia, probably brought on by influenza as was the case with so many casualties of the Spanish Flu epidemic. However, it certainly made me think of what it must have been like to die of pneumonia in the days when there was little that medicine could do to help.
McGregor was admitted to 41st Stationary Hospital on 30 November and died the same day. Unfortunately, the clerk who typed up the report incorrectly read died as disch. (discharged) so no notification was sent to his next-of-kin. The mistake wasn't realised until the end of January 1919 when a telegram arrived at the London office of the Australian Red Cross asking for information with the comment that, "he is said to be wounded and in hospital in London". Unfortunately, he wasn't.
John McGregor's elder brother, Osswild Daniel, had been killed in action on the 5 November 1916.