John R. McCulley (b. ca. 1878), one of three sons of Samuel Upham McCulley, was born in Chatham, New Brunswick. Heenlisted in the Royal Canadian Dragoons (Canadian Mounted Rifles) in 1900 at Sussex, New Brunswick for service in the Boer War (South African War 1899-1902). John McCulley was among the 352 men, 18 officers and 368 horses who left Halifax 21 February 1900 bound for Capetown, South Africa aboard the "Milwaukee". During the South African service, the Royal Canadian Dragoons participated in some 40 engagements ranging from full-scale battles to small skirmishes involving only a small number of men. By early December 1900, the unit returned to Capetown, boarded the "S.S. Roselyn Castle" and sailed for home on 13 December. The troops arrived at Halifax on 9 January 1901 then proceeded to their homes by train.

On 17 October 1901, while on their royal tour of Canada, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) presented the Queen's South Africa Medal to John McCulley and other veterans at the Exhibition Centre in Saint John, N.B. John R. McCulley worked as a surveyor in civilian life. It is believed that all the McCulley brothers had settled in British Columbia by 1941.

Daniel F. Johnson and Byron O'Leary, "The South Africa War"
W.D. Hamilton, "Dictionary of Miramichi Biography"