Ancestor Details
Name of Ancestor: James McGurgan
Ancestor's date of birth: 23/02/1876
Ancestor's date of death: 1933
Cause of Death: Detail not provided
Service Number: 577
Colony or State of enlistment: VIC, Place of Enlistment: Kinggower/Inglewood?
Unit: 4th Victorian Imperial Bushmen
Rank attained in Boer War: CPL, Date Effective: Detail not available
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War service
Murray Page: 273
Contingent: Fourth Victorian
Ship: Victorian, Date of Sailing: 01/05/1900
Memorial details: Detail not provided
Awards/Decorations: Queen's South Africa Medal with Rhodesia, Cape Colony, Transvaal and SA 1901 clasps.
Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided
Reasons to go and fight: Detail not provided
Details of service in war: May 1900 - June 1901 in Rhodesia, west Transvaal Cape Colony including relief of Philipstown (11 February 1901), capture of Boer guns at Read's Drift (23 February), and capture of Boer patrol near Doornkloof (1 March 1901). May also have undertaken garrison duty in Rhodesia.
Service and life after the Boer War: Returned to Australia: 12 July 1901 on the Orient.
Note: McGURGAN, James [known as Jim], Private [577]. C Squadron. Born Inglewood, 23/2/76. Ranger. Single. NOK: Father, James McGurgan Snr., Kurting, via Inglewood. Mother: Margaret Ann McGurgan, nee Souter. Enlisted with the Victorian Imperial Bushmen Contingent. Religion: Roman Catholic. Height 5 feet 9¼ ins. Chest measurement 35 ins. Left Port Melbourne on the Victorian, 1/5/00 for South Africa, disembarking at Beira, 23/5/00. Good friends with Will Boyd [479] and Jack O'Keefe [156]. Rhodesia and Cape campaigns. Left for Australia from East London on the Orient, 22/6/01, arriving at Melbourne, 12/7/01. Discharged 31/7/01. On 18/9/1901 he was presented with an inscribed gold locket at Kingower. O'Keefe was present. Medal entitlement: QSA and four clasps: cc/tvl/rhod/01. Possibly married Margaret Tobin in 1929. Died Melbourne, 1933.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Bernard Francis McGurgan, CAPALABA QLD
Relationship to Ancestor: James was my Great Uncle!
