The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1260) Sergeant William O’Hara DCM, 19th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Charis May, the story for this day was on (1260) Sergeant William O’Hara DCM, 19th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1260 Sergeant William O’Hara DCM, 19th Battalion, AIF
DOW 4 October 1918

Story delivered 27 September 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant William O’Hara.

William Henry O’Hara was born in 1890, one of 13 children of John and Alice O’Hara of Balclutha, a town in Otago on New Zealand’s southern island. After attending state school, William began his working life as a carpenter, completing an apprenticeship at the Clutha Timber and Hardware Company around 1908. Following the introduction of compulsory military service in New Zealand, William enlisted in a local militia regiment, the 4th Battalion (Otago Rifle) Regiment, and excelled as a peacetime soldier. Rising to the rank of colour sergeant, he led the Clutha Volunteer Rifle shooting team before enlisting in the New Zealand Permanent Force in March 1911. He was promoted to sergeant major and posted to Christchurch, and then Nelson, where he was living when New Zealand went to war in 1914.

William O’Hara was part of the nucleus of experienced peacetime soldiers and NCOs that comprised the newly-formed New Zealand Expeditionary Force in August 1914. When war was declared, he was made a drill instructor for the Canterbury Infantry Battalion which sailed for Western Australia, and then to Egypt, as part of the first troopship convoy. On the voyage over he had his first brush with military law. After being found guilty of drunkenness he was court martialled and reduced in rank. Once in Egypt, he went absent without leave from the camp at Zeitoun, was court martialled a second time, and sent home to New Zealand in disgrace for ill-discipline.

Discharged from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, in January 1915 O’Hara presented himself to a recruiting office in Sydney to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force, stating that he had resigned from the New Zealand forces. After a period of training at Liverpool Military Camp, in June 1915 he embarked for the fighting on Gallipoli as an original member of the 19th Battalion with the rank of sergeant.

Once in Egypt, he was soon hospitalised with a venereal disease which prevented him from embarking for the Dardanelles with the rest of the battalion. After landing on Gallipoli in September, he was evacuated to Lemnos around the time of the withdrawal, suffering from tonsillitis.

Following his return to the battalion, the AIF doubled in size and underwent a major restructure in preparation for the fighting on the Western Front. Sailing for France in March 1916, O’Hara was hospitalised in Marseilles with a second bout of venereal disease, which waylaid him for two months. Once healthy, he joined the 19th Battalion in the midst of the bloody fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm. During a costly and unsuccessful attack on a position known as Gird Trench near the village of Gueudecourt on 11 November 1916, O’Hara was wounded in the hand and thigh and evacuated to a hospital in England for a lengthy period of rest and recovery.

O’Hara did not return to France until May 1917, after the 19th Battalion had fought for possession of the Hindenburg Line near the town of Bullecourt. It spent the following months taking on reinforcements and training, before shifting north into Belgium to participate in the Battle of Third Ypres in September. On 9 October, the battalion was involved in the ill-fated assault at Poelcappelle, during which O’Hara led his platoon to capture a position known as Daisy Wood. For “showing splendid leadership” and “gallant conduct and spirit of determination in the face of extremely heavy [machine-gun] and sniping fire”, Sergeant William O’Hara was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Following the start of the German spring offensive in March 1918, the 19th Battalion was rushed south to Villers-Bretonneux where it formed part of the British defences intended to blunt the German advance towards Amiens. As the battalion was relieved from positions near Hangard Wood, O’Hara had one final brush with military law. Charged with absenting himself and his platoon’s rum ration, he managed to evade severe punishment and remained on duty. Several weeks later he was exposed to poisonous gas delivered by German artillery, and spent the following months recovering in England.

O’Hara returned to France one final time in September 1918. By this stage, the Allies had launched their own highly-successful counter-offensive and had broken through the formidable Hindenburg Line. On 3 October 1918, in the 19th Battalion’s last action of the war, a German shell exploded next to Sergeant O’Hara during the assault on the Beaurevoir Line near the village of Estrees, shattering his legs and arms. He was evacuated to the 53rd Casualty Clearance Station, where he died the next day.

He was buried at the nearby military cemetery at Tincourt, where an epitaph penned by his mother appears on his headstone: “He died that we may live”.

He was 28 years old.

William O’Hara is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sergeant William O’Hara, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section