Private James O McLean

20 Oct 1944

James O’Hair McLean was the son of James and Margaret McLean and the husband of Everhilda McLean. He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and volunteered for airborne forces.

Private McLean successfully completed his parachute training at RAF Kabrit, Egypt, and was attached to 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and took part in Operation Market Garden (Arnhem).

Pte McLean along with Lt John Howard and Pte R. Pitcher tried to cross the river Rhine at Oosterbeek on 20th October 1944. Until then they had been hiding in the Heijbroek house ‘Valkenburg’, on the eastern corner of Utrechtseweg and Van Borsselenweg. Howard and McLean probably drowned; Pitcher survived. (Roll of Honour, 5th revised edition, 2011)

Pte McLean died on 20th October 1944, aged 27, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the missing.

If you are part of Pte McLean’s family and would like to complete this biography, you can apply to the Curator to do so. To do this you will need to become a member of ParaData and select the 'friend or family member' option on the registration form.

If you would like to find out more about becoming a member please visit our registration page.

Members of ParaData can submit their material by clicking on the 'Add content to this article' button on the right.

By Rod Gibson

Read More

Service History

Latest Comments

There are currently no comments for this content.

Add your comment