John Frederick McCrea

Subject: John Frederick McCrea Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:59 pm

There is nothing that say's he received the Zulu War Campaign. Would he have received it.

"John Frederick McCrea was born on 1 April 1854 at Fort St George, Madras, India to Captain Herbert Taylor McCrea and Elizabeth Dobree Carey.[1] Following his parents' deaths in 1855, he was brought up by his aunt Charlotte in Guernsey and educated at Elizabeth College.He then studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, qualifying in 1878 as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh.
In 1879 he went to South Africa, where he did duty at the Military Hospital in Cape Town as Civilian Surgeon to Her Majesty's Forces. A year later he moved to Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape to settle, but decided instead to join the 1st Regiment, Cape Mounted Yeomanry as a surgeon"

Posts : 420 Join date : 2011-05-14

From the 'History of the Victoria Cross':

JOHN FREDERICK McCREA (Surgeon)
1st Regiment, Cape Mounted Yeomanry

On January 14, 1881, during the action against the Basutos at Tweefontein, near Thaba Tsen, Surgeon McCrea behaved with very great bravery and devotion to the wounded. The enemy had charged with great determination, forcing the Burghers to retire with a loss of sixteen killed and twenty-one wounded. Among th latter was a man named Aicramp, who had been shot and lay some considerable distance away, but McCrea went to his assistance under a heavy fire, and, with the help of Captain Buxton, of the Mafeteng Contingent, carried him to the shelter of an ant-heap, and then returned for a stretcher. While again crossing the open space he was severly wounded in the right breast by a bullet, but still continued in his duties with the Ambulance, and carried many wounded from the field. He paid little attention to his own injury, and was forced to dress it as well as he could later on, as no other medical officer was present. The Gazette stated that, had it not been for his exertions, the sufferings of the wounded would have been greatly aggravated and many more lives lost.

He died in Africa in the summer of 1894.'

He does not appear in the Medal Roll for 1877-8-9.

kwaJimu1879

Subject: John Frederick McCrea Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:34 am

Hi Littlehand.
As McCrea was based at Cape Town and wasnt really in the vicinity of the zulu war he wouldnt be entitled to the Campaign
Medal as I see it . I'm sure one of the Sth African connection can give us a distance from Cape Town to the war .
cheers 90th .

Posts : 627 Join date : 2009-01-20 Age : 45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frederick_McCrea
No mention of him serving in the Zulu War of 1879

Posts : 1069 Join date : 2009-10-16

Hi All
McCrea died 16 July 1894 and is buried in Kokstad Cemetery, Natal, there is a photograph on the findagrave website.
Rai KLH

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