Not Forgotten, 5407 Private Ernest McGREGOR, 28 Battalion AIF, World War 1

Private Ernest McGregor was born and educated in Fremantle, the son of the late Alexander Malcolm McGregor and the widowed Mrs. Elizabeth Cosh who lived at Minnivale. At the time of his enlistment Private McGregor was working as a mill hand for Whittaker’s Mill at North Dandalup. Ernest McGregor applied to enlist at Bunbury and then enlisted at Blackboy Hill on 16 March 1916, having been rejected previously on the basis of defective eyesight; he was placed in the 28th Battalion.
Embarking at Fremantle on A28 Militades on 7 August 1916, Private McGregor was found to be unwell with an abscess on the liver and he was disembarked at Cape Town, South Africa on 21 October where he was admitted to the 2nd General Hospital. Mrs. Cosh was informed by telegram that her son was progressing favourably on 22 December, but by 29 December he was considered dangerously ill and his mother was notified accordingly. Private McGregor died of liver disease there on 3 January 1917 and was buried in the Military Allotment at Maitland Road Cemetery in Cape Town.
The Maitland Road Cemetery is the principal cemetery in Cape Town, 7 miles (10km) from the centre of the city. In the cemetery are the remains of 45 Australians and 4 New Zealand members of the Forces who lost their lives in the 1914-1918 war as well as 2 New Zealanders who lost their lives in the Second World War. In addition there are in the Plumstead Cemetery, 12 miles (about 20km) from the centre of the city, the graves of 6 Australian members of the Forces who died in the First World War and 1 New Zealander, as well as one New Zealander buried in the Mowbray Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery in Cape Town.
Prior to the Imperial War Graves Commission taking responsibility for the graves there was a group of Australian women who tended the graves at the Maitland Road Cemetery. Once the War Graves Commission took over tending the graves these women continued to lay wreaths at the Stone of Remembrance each ANZAC Day for many years. On ANZAC Day 1946 a service was held in the Cemetery, and in 1947 the ANZAC Day service there was attended by 60-70 people and the High Commissioner for Australia, among others, laid a wreath.
Private McGregor was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.