1st NSW Mounted Rifles, Private No. 462 John (Jack) Blenner McJannett was born on 16 July 1866 at Yass.
The Queanbeyan Age of 4 April 1900 reported that he had been serving as orderly to Captain Legge and engaged as one of the outer guards of the 4,000 prisoners taken when Cronje surrendered. The prisoners were in tents surrounded by barbed wire and apparently many were glad to be there as they were tired of fighting. When the regiment later came to Bloemfontein, he contracted enteric fever, as did so many of the men. The Queanbeyan Age of 1 September 1900 reported that he had arrived home on the Damascus and the Bungendore Progress Association was planning to meet him and give him a formal welcome. By 8 September, he had returned home, still weak from his illness.
He became the first returning Bungendore soldier from the Boer War and was discharged from the Mounted Rifles on 3 December 1900.
By late December 1900, he had successfully tendered for the mail run from Gundaroo to Bungendore via Bywong with a horse and a two wheeled vehicle at a salary of £23 / 8/ - (c. $46.80) per year. He was among a large No. of local men when he received the Queen’s Medal plus two clasps from the Duke of York at Government House in Sydney on 1 June 1901.
In 1919 he left Bungendore, having spent most of his years as a hotelkeeper at the Harp Inn and as a mail contractor. He moved to Lithgow where he lived at 50 Calero Street and worked as a machinist.
He died in the Sacred Heart Hospital at Darlinghurst on 28 November1929, aged 63. He was buried at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
His brothers Robert and Vince McJannett also served with Brabant’s Horse during the Boer War.
See also: BUNGENDORE & DISTRICT WAR MEMORIAL SOUTH AFRICAN (BOER) WAR 1899-1902 ROLL OF HONOUR ISBN: 978-0-646-55612-3 Peter John Hugonnet 2011
