Donald’s occupation and marital status upon enlistment was detailed as a clerk, who was single.
- Date of Birth – 13 June 1886 in Araluen, NSW.1NSW Birth Death and Marriages, https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/ Birth – 16588/1886 Parents Dugald I and Elizabeth W, Registered in Braidwood. Accessed 9 June 2026.
- Parents – Dugald John McLean and Elizabeth (Mennons) McLean, of Yuin, Murchison, Western Australia.
- Enlisted – 14 January 1915, at Perth in Western Australia. Unit embarked from Freemantle on the HMAT Hororata A20 on 26 April 1915.2University of NSW AIF project https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=202075 Accessed 9 June 2026.
- Regimental Number – 9623National Archives of Australia. https://www.naa.gov.au/. NAA: B2455, MCLEAN D, Item ID – 1952642, Accessed 9 June 2026 and Karen Nelson, Marching Home to Braidwood. Braidwood RSL. UPS, Ulladulla, NSW. 2016. P 109.
- Aged at embarkation – 264Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1650292 Accessed 9 June 2026.
- Military service – 10th Light Horse Regiment, 5th Reinforcements, Rank –Trooper5Virtual War Memorial Australia, https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/49415 Accessed 9 June 2026.
- Serving at Gallipoli, Donald was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
- Killed in Action on 7 August 1915 at the Gallipoli Peninsula (aged 29 years)6Find a Grave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/249832870/donald-shapley-mclean and https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182181707/donald_shapley-mclean. Accessed 9 June 2026. Donald Shapley McLean’s name is located at panel 8 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
- Buried at Walkers Ridge Cemetery, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey.7Commonwealth War graves https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/604719/donald-shapley-mclean/ Accessed 9 June 2026.
In April 1886, the Manaro Mercury8Manaro Mercury, and Cooma and Bombala Advertiser (NSW : 1862-1931), Saturday 17 April 1886, p 3. reported ‘Mr. Dugald John McLean has been appointed post and telegraph master at Araluen, vice Ambrose.’
Dugald McLean and Elizabeth Fremlin had eleven children; Reginald (1885- ), Donald Shapley McLean (1886-1915), Edith Alice McLean (1888-1982 who married Mercer in 1913), Hector McLean (1890- ), Jessie Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ McLean (1892-1939 who married Forest Brand), Duart McLean (1895-1966), Norman Mclean (1896-1972), Esme McLean (1898-1898), Winifred Catherine McDonald McLean (1900-1979 who married Albert Brand), Douglas Wakeford ‘Bob’ McLean (1902-1954) and Elsie Mary Mennons McLean (1904-1984 who married Halleen).
The West Australian9West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879-1954), Saturday 4 September 1915, p 1. published a notice in September 1915 ‘McLean.—On August 7. [1915] killed in action, at the Dardanelles, Trooper Donald Shapley. 10th Light Horse, second son, of D. J. and E. McLean, Yuin, late of Commonwealth Pensions Office, Perth.’
A plaque was dedicated by the family on 15 August 2015 at the Honour Avenues in Kings Park, Perth W.A.10https://honouravenueskingspark.com.au/ Accessed 9 June 2026. It reads ‘Trooper Donald Shapley McLean of 10 Light Horse Regiment was born at Araluen in New South Wales in June 1886. He was the second-eldest of five sons and five daughters born to Dugald John and Elizabeth Mennons McLeod. It is understood that the family moved to Western Australia around 1900 and eventually settled at Yuin in the Murchison area. He apparently attended a private school in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, and then the public school at East Perth. Later he was employed by the civil service corps in a clerical capacity. Donald enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 12 January 1915 in Perth. He was posted to the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment. He embarked on HMS Hororata at Fremantle on 26 April 1915, bound for Gallipoli as part of the 1 to 14 Reinforcements and joined the unit on 13 July 1915, being allotted to A squadron. Trooper Donald Shapley McLean, service number 962, was killed in action at Walker’s Ridge, Gallipoli on 7 August 1915. He was 29 years of age and is buried at Walker’s Ridge Cemetery, the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey.’
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