Charles Joseph Cameron MACKEDIE
Year of Birth: 1876
Place of Birth: Quebec, Canada
Date of Enlistment: August 1914
Date and Place of Embarkation: 8 August 1914 at Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Ship: Kanowna
Rank: Private
Unit(s): 2nd Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force
Regimental Number: 1718, 24201, 65098
Died: 4 October 1922
According to northern newspapers (Northern Miner, Charters Towers) as early as 1898 Charles Mackedie was engaged in mining in the Charters Towers area. He married Florence Hearn in Charters Towers in 1898 and they divorced in 1913. Charles then married Marguerite Sophia Buchan-Hepburn on 26 September 1914, and they lived at Lumley Street Cairns.
With the start of World War 1 he enlisted in the Kennedy Regiment and embarked on the Kanowna in readiness for the capture of German New Guinea earlier in the year. The ship returned to Townsville after the crew refused to proceed past Thursday Island due to the lack of fresh water, the reason the soldiers were called the “Dirty 500”. He received a discharge on 18 September 1914.
He re-enlisted and was discharged due to a hernia which he had repaired and with a statement from 2 Medical Board members that he was fit for service, he re-enlisted again on 9 July 1918 with 8th Battalion. He was 42 years 2 months old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 126 pounds He had a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and grey hair. His religion was Presbyterian. He named his second wife, Margaret, as his next of kin.
He was discharged again on 7 November 1918 because of his recurrent hernia with the Medical Board saying he was unfit for active service.
He and his wife were living at Browns Bay via Cairns in 1921 and he was working as a storeman.
He died in Cairns on 14 October 1922 and is buried in the Cairns General Cemetery (Martyn Street Cemetery).
Online Resources
NAA: B2455 (MACKEDIE C J C) National Archives of Australia
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers
Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages
Ancestry.com.au: Queensland Electoral Rolls
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