MCLEOD FAMILY
Alexander was a police officer stationed at Yarra Glen from about 1907 to 1914. He and his family had just moved to Yarram at the time his sons enlisted in 1915. He married Elizabeth Peach in 1895.
Their eldest son, Alexander John, was born in Merino, Victoria in 1896. He was only 19 but held the rank of Lance Corporal in the 7th Battalion 4th Reinforcement when it left Melbourne in April 1915 on the Wiltshire. He joined the Battalion in Egypt on 22 May and three days later his rank of Lance Corporal was cancelled. The details on his AIF record are very brief. Alexander was killed at Gallipoli on 16 August 1915. He is buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.
The second son, Leslie John McLeod, was born in 1897 in Geelong. Leslie enlisted in July 1915 and was a trooper in the 9th Light Horse Regiment which embarked from Melbourne on 20 August. Leslie contracted a disease while the ship was sailing to Western Australia and he was taken off the ship at Fremantle. He died aged 17 on 29 August just a fortnight after his brother Alexander in Europe. No doubt anxious to join his brother he had raised his age to 18 when he enlisted! Leslie is buried in the Fremantle Cemetery, Western Australia.
Alexander and Elizabeths third son, Othel Keith McLeod, was born 29 April 1909 at Lilydale. Keith enlisted on the 20 January 1943 and served with the 2/33 Australian Infantry Battalion. He died 9 September 1943 of injuries received while serving in New Guinea.
The three brothers are commemorated in a memorial window in St Paul's Anglican Church, Yarra Glen. and on the Yarra Glen Honour Roll.
Alexander and Leslie are also commemorated on the Yarra Glen War Memorial and the Kangaroo Ground Honour Board.
