Private Alexander McPhee
- Rank
- Private
- Appointment
- Trooper
- Service number
- 182
- Unit
- 10 Light Horse Regiment
- Cause of death
- Died of Illness
- Place of death
- Heliopolis, Egypt
- Date of death
- 9 February 1916
- Age
- 59
- Plaque number
- M391A
- Co-located plaques
- M391 - PTE Allen Cooke
- M391B - PTE Herbert Bell
- Dedicated by
- Family on 18 May 2013
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Trooper Alexander McPhee, or Sandy as he was known, was born at Hopkins Hill in Victoria in July 1856.
He was one of six sons and seven daughters of Charles and Flora McPhee. They had come to Australia from Kilmalie, Scotland in the 1840’s.
Sandy attended school in the Ballarat District and loved all sports including boxing and was an expert horseman.
He came to Western Australia in the early 1880’s and was a well-known pioneer in the north-west where he was a station manager, pearler, prospector, explorer and drover.
In 1889, he learned of a white aborigine who he located 300 miles inland, whose name was Jungun. Sandy brought him and some of his tribe to Perth and then Melbourne, where it was established that Jungun was an albino. Sandy later returned them to their tribe.
In October 1914, he enlisted in 10 Light Horse by saying that he was 44 but he was actually 58.
After training, he sailed from Fremantle in February 1915 on board HMAT Mashroba as part of 'A' Squadron.
They arrived at Gallipoli in October and fought there till they were evacuated in December. Back in Egypt, Sandy succumbed to cerebral meningitis.
Trooper Alexander McPhee, service number 182 of 10 Light Horse Regiment, died at 1 Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis on 9 February 1916. He was 59 years of age.