George Burdon McKean VC MC MM

b. 04/07/1888 Willington, County Durham. d. 26/11/1926 Brighton, Sussex.

George Burdon McKean (1888-1926) was born on 4th July 1888 at 102 High Street, Willington, Bishop Auckland, County Durham. His father, James, was born in Scotland. He married Jane Ann Henderson in 1865 at Durham. He was a coal miner and they were living at 6 Katherine Street, Willington in 1881. By 1888 he was a furniture broker. Tragedy struck George’s childhood, with his father dying when he was 3, and his mother dying when he was 17 in 1905. George had seven siblings.

George was educated at Bishop Barrington School, Bishop Auckland, and served an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker with Messrs T Thompson’s Exors, of Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland. He emigrated to Canada alone, possibly after the death of his mother in 1905. He worked on a cattle ranch and later on a farm owned by his brother, John. In 1912, he entered Alberta College South, the Faculty of Theology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, where he trained for the Presbyterian ministry but enlisted prior to completing his studies.

George B McKean
VC MC MM

When the First World War began, George McKean, 5’ 6” tall and weighing only nine stones, was rejected three times on medical grounds for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, before he finally enlisted on 23 January 1915 in Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta. He married Isa/Isobella Hall Mckay on 6th December 1915 at Calgary, Alberta. She was originally from Scotland. After completing his training, Private McKean arrived in Britain in April 1916 and joined the 14th Infantry Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment) on the Western Front in June 1916.

George was appointed lance sergeant on 22nd June and attended a Stokes Gun Course. On 4th October he was appointed acting corporal without pay. He was wounded by a gunshot to the scalp on 27th November and was admitted to 2nd Canadian Field Ambulance and to No 23 Casualty Clearing Station next day. He remained out of action until 17th December 1917, and was promoted to corporal. He was awarded the Military Medal in March 1917 for leading scout patrols at Bully-Grenay, near Lens, during which he was wounded.

He was recommended for a commission and joined the Canadian Base Depot on 5th March 1917 for transfer to England to attend officer training at the cadet school. He was commissioned as a temporary lieutenant in 23rd Reserve Battalion on 28th April.

On the night of 27-28 April 1918, during a raid on German trenches at Gavrelle, near Arras, a patrol led by Lieutenant McKean was pinned down by intense machine gun fire and hand grenades thrown from a strongly-defended German position. Realising that this obstacle had to be destroyed or the raid would fail, George then rushed the barbed wire barricade and, armed only with his revolver, leapt over the top and fought with two German defenders before killing them both. The remainder of the Canadian patrol then joined their lieutenant, as he cleared the trench and dug-outs with Mills bombs, killing or taking prisoner several German soldiers.

For this action in April 1918, Lieutenant George McKean was awarded the Victoria Cross, one of seven County Durham men who were awarded the VC during the First World War, and the official citation (see below) praised both his “splendid bravery and dash” and “his leadership that has at all times been beyond praise”. The VC and MM were presented by King George V in the quadrangle at Buckingham Palace on 17th July 1918. At a ceremony at King’s Hall, Bishop Auckland he was presented with an illuminated address and a gold watch by members of the town council.

He was then awarded the Military Cross for leading scout patrols for two days during an attack near Cagnicourt, France on 1st/2nd September 1918. He was wounded by a gunshot to the right leg but pressed on with his mission, sent in accurate reports and rallied men who had lost their officers. He entered Cagnicourt with three men and spotted one hundred enemy soldiers leaving the village, so he dashed to their flank to head them off and waved his arms and yelled orders to an imaginary force. The Germans were tricked and surrendered. He continued sending in valuable information to HQ until exhausted by a loss of blood.

George was admitted to No 1 Casualty Clearing Station before being transferred to No 10 British Red Cross Hospital, Le Treport on 4th September. On 8th September he was evacuated to Prince of Wales’s Hospital, Marylebone Road, London and transferred to Kitchener Indian General Hospital, Brighton, Sussex on 21st October. On 15th January 1919, he transferred to the Canadian Convalescent Officers’ Hospital in Matlock, Derbyshire, where a medical board passed him fit. He was appointed acting captain on 27th January 1918.

In July 1919, George McKean retired from the Canadian Army with the rank of Captain but, instead of returning to Canada, he settled near Brighton and married for a second time to Constance Hilton Slaughter in 1923. They had a daughter, Constance Patricia, born in 1920, prior to their marriage. What happened to his first wife is not known. In the British Army he was promoted to captain and transferred to the Corps of Military Accountants as accounts officer 6th class on 19th November. He served in Egypt until September 1925, and returned to Britain and discharged from the Army on 17th March 1926.

George and Constance then settled at Cuffley, Hertfordshire, where he ran a sawmill. He wrote two books – Scouting Thrills in 1919 and Making Good in 1920, which dealt with his emigration to Canada. Then, on 26th November 1926, he was fatally wounded in a horrific accident at thesaw mill, when a circular saw burst and a piece struck him in the head. He was rushed to Potter’s Bar Cottage Hospital, South Mimms, but never regained consciousness and died later that day. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 2nd December 1926. His ashes were buried with full military honours at Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery, Brighton, Sussex on 3rd December 1926. George is commemorated with Mount McKean in Jasper National Park, Alberta, with La Place de George Burdon McKean named after him in Cagnicourt, France, and with a VC commemorative stone unveiled on 28th April 2018 in Willington, County Durham. There is also a painting of him at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

In addition to his VC, MC and MM he was also awarded the British War Medal 1914-20 and Victory Medal 1914-19. His medals were sold by his widow on 21st March 1979 to JB Hayward & Son of London at Sotheby’s for £17,000. They were then bought by Jack Stenabaugh, a medal collector from Huntsville, Ontario. They were then owned by a British collector in Colchester, Essex before being sold to the Canadian War Museum for an undisclosed sum.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM, OTTAWA, CANADA.

BURIAL PLACE: BRIGHTON EXTRA MURAL CEMETERY, BRIGHTON, SUSSEX (ASHES INTERRED).

REF: 41624