By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
CASEY Council will review plans to rename part of Clyde North in memory of a specific World War I Digger after a local historian unearthed evidence the soldier may never have lived in Clyde at all.
A council spokesperson confirmed on Friday that Property, Rates and Valuations manager Peter Gillieron was reviewing the name McPherson in “light of the information uncovered by the historian”.
At last week’s council meeting the City of Casey outlined its plans to meet with the Metropolitan Planning Authority (MPA) to discuss the renaming as part of the ANZAC Commemorative Naming Project.
But at the request of Star News, Jane Rivett-Carnac, from the Narre Warren and District Family History Group, found no definitive links to confirm a man named McPherson, or his family, lived in the Clyde area during that time period.
She believes a misunderstanding arose after listings in National Archives referring to Clyde actually appeared to be shortened references to the suburb of Clydesdale near Daylesford, to the north-west of Melbourne.
“If someone has only checked the WWI record search at the National Archives they could easily be confused by four men out of 360-plus with the surname McPherson enlisted showing their place of birth as Clyde,” Ms Rivett-Carnac said.
“However if you then read the relevant digital records for these four men you find they are born at Clydesdale in central Victoria (Herbert James, John, James and Charles Allen).”
These names were indeed the same people council had identified as being born in the “Clyde area” and who served in WWI – John McPherson, James McPherson and Herbert James McPherson.
An MPA spokesperson told Star News earlier this week that officers at the City of Casey undertook research into local families that had served in WWI, and provided some suggested names for Precinct Structure Plan areas to the MPA, including McPherson.
