Roger McMillan, was born at Chewton, Vic., in about 1893 (there seems to be some debate about his exact birth date) his father was Hamilton (Jnr) and his mother was Jane Anne Bowen. Grand dad was an Anzac and fought at Gallipoli and the western front including the disastrous attack at Fromelles in 1916. After the war he moved to Gippsland in Victoria’s south east and helped clear the land for the Lake Glenmaggie irrigation project and then was one of the original workers on the State Electricity Commissions new coal mines and power stations in the Latrobe Valley. He died in 1971 at Bairnsdale, Victoria.

^{(Above provided by James Hamilton McMillan, Grandson of Roger 28/12/22)}

He began military service on 15 February 1915 at Chewton, VictoriaG, 2063, Private, 8th Btn, Army.5

The following report is from the Mount Alexander Mail, Monday 9 August 1915, page 2.

“Private Roger McMillan, who in June last was in training in Egypt, writes as follows to his relatives in Chewton:-

Selley Callahan and I, along with a lot of other chaps, went out to the Pyramids last Sunday. There is no doubt they are a marvellous piece of work. Our guide told us that they were built 5000 years ago by slaves. They used to put them on in batches of 30,000 a month, and it took ?? years to build them, so that will give you an idea of what they are like. The original Pyramid is that of King Cheops, and it is the largest of all being 450ft. in height, and cover 13 acres of ground at the base, tapering to 20 feet square on the top. There is a tradition that the ??? ??? ened all this place at one time, and that is the reason for the Royal Families being buried in the Pyramids, and that in the event of the sea ever rising again there would be no danger of the water getting at them. The Sphinx is much older than the Pyramids. It is also wonderful thing. Carved out of the solid rock? it represents a lion’s body and a woman’s head, the expression on whose face no one has ever been able to read. Napoleon tried his best to read it, and because he couldn’t he was so incensed that he turned his cannons on it and partially destroyed the face by blowing the ???? off it. So much for spite. I also visited Cairo, or what is termed the Holy City, as it is nearly all pulled down now. There is one grand relic left of the ancient Romans in the ??? of a very large building standing almost as solid now as the day it was built, an evidence of their ???? workmanship. Taking everything into consideration this is a wonderful place; it makes one realise how utterly insignificant man is after all.”

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119643150