F. R. McMillan

British Ex-World War II Soldier

F. R. McMillan, or ‘Mac’ as he was more commonly called, was born on the 25th June 1914. His father had a sports shop and Mac became a tennis racquet stringer, working in Cambridge, England, after he married.

The sports work was only for the six winter months, so Mac took other jobs during the rest of the year.

During the depression of the 1930s he took any job he could get and when he received his call-up papers, in June 1940, he was a baker’s roundsman. Mac’s experiences during his two years away in military service were intense and nerve-wrecking but he found time every day to record them in his diary.

After his time spent in the Army, Mac became the foreman at a small engineering firm. He was a keen union man and went on to became the branch secretary of the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering Union).

Sadly, ‘Mac’ McMillan passed away following a heart attack in 1959, aged 45.

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