Private James O McLean

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.

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