Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/11/1914

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

10/06/1895

Place of Birth

Swan Hill, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Son of Alexander Anderson Macleod and Mary Elizabeth Macleod, Wanda Road, Caulfield, Victoria

Burial Place

No known burial place

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

13 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action), Gallipoli on 3 May 1915, aged 19 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 70, Canberra ACT
Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT

Macleod entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 7 March 1912 and was a member of the guard of honour formed by the cadets at the naming ceremony for Canberra on 12 March 1913. He was graduated early on 2 November 1914 and enlisted as a Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion, landing with them on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. According to Bean, Macleod led his platoon (No.4 Platoon, A Company) up Monash Valley on 3 May to reinforce his battalion who were on the Chessboard (to the left of Quinns Post). They were following the 16th Battalion. Finding no one to give them directions, Macleod led them up Bloody Angle but they were never seen again. A report on Macleod says that he landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and on the morning of the 26th April was in action with his men on Popes Hill. "Macleod rose to the occasion brilliantly. He set his men to work to dig themselves well in which they did in the intervals of the fighting. He and his men beat off several Turkish attacks. On the night of 2nd/ 3rd May 1915, the 13th Battalion, in conjunction with the 16th Battalion and the Otago Battalion attacked the Turkish trenches on our Front. Lieut. Macleod was ordered to take his men up a narrow ravine between Popes Hill and Quinns Post and it is characteristic of him that he placed himself at their head. That is the last I saw of him myself, but I knew that he was killed when leading his men close to the Turkish trenches." His body was not recovered.

Description - height 6 feet 2½ inches, weight 149 pounds, chest 36-39 inches.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. I p.589)
AWM Collections Record : P01150.004
Argus (Melbourne) - 6 July 1915
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial