Major Melrose Holton Mailer MC

Melrose Mailer, son of Coburg pioneers Robert and Isabella Mailer of ‘Glencairn’ was the father of Melrose Holton (sometimes spelled Holtom) Mailer who won the Military Cross for courage at Passchendaele during World War One. Both father and son were doctors and until Melrose senior’s death in 1926 had a practice together in Coburg.

Melrose H. Mailer after he was awarded the MC, 

Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 

1 Feb 1918,

Holton Mailer was born in Carlton in 1893 and educated at Carlton College and Melbourne University. He enlisted in October 1915 and embarked in June 1916 with the 11^th Field Ambulance, 33^rd Battalion. He served as the Medical Officer for the 33^rd Battalion, was hospitalised with gas poisioning and returned to Australia in August 1919.

 Image of Melrose Holton Mailer, Old Carlton Collegian, c1906.  This photograph is a detail of a larger photograph held by Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School entitled Old Carlton Collegians c1906 [PEGS Archives, ItemID: PH04602]

In December 1921 Holton Mailer married Millicent Turnbull at the family home, ‘Glencairn’, in Craigrossie Street, Moreland. By then he had taken over the family practice. He served briefly in World War Two and died at Elwood in 1967 aged 73.

Sources:

Coburg Historical Society Newsletter, #8, July 1978

Richard Broome, Coburg between two creeks

Victorian Birth, Death, Marriage indexes

National Archives of Australia, WW1 service records

Australian War Memorial image collection

Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 1 Feb 1918

Discovering Anzac website (PEGS Archive)