Hector MacLean was the eldest son of Margaret MacQueen (née Bairnsfather; 1846–1921) and Major-General Charles Smith MacLean CB CIE (1836–1921). Hector was born in a tent on the hill of Sheikh Budin, in the Northwestern Provinces of India, now Pakistan. He was educated at
Fettes College in
Edinburgh. He was 26 years old, and a
lieutenant in the
Indian Staff Corps and Corps of Guides,
Indian Army during the
Tirah Campaign when the following deed took place for which he was posthumously awarded the VC. On 17 August 1897 at Nawa Kili, Upper Swat,
British India, Lieutenant Maclean, with fellow officers
Robert Bellew Adams and
Alexander Edward Murray, Viscount Fincastle and five men of the Guides, went under a heavy and close fire, to the rescue of a Lieutenant Greaves of the
Lancashire Fusiliers who was lying disabled by a bullet wound and surrounded by enemy swordsmen. While the wounded officer was being brought under cover he was killed by a bullet. Lieutenant Maclean was mortally wounded. His citation read:
Bruce Bairnsfather was his maternal cousin. His nephew,
Vice Admiral Sir Hector Charles Donald Maclean, was the maternal grandfather of actor
Rupert Everett. ==The medal==