Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Cyril Eugene O’Connor
Enlisted 11 January 1916 – 55th Infantry Battalion – No 2207

Euie was born and bred in Cathcart in southern NSW and was well known to fellow serviceman George Gerathy who was Euie’s uncle.
Euie was 24 when he enlisted at Holts Flat and was allocated to the 4th Reinforcement of the 55th Battalion of the 5th Infantry Division along with three other volunteers from Cathcart. He had some previous experience having been a member of the Cathcart Rifle Club. He was 5 foot 6 inches tall and had a dark complexion with black hair and hazel eyes. His next of kin was his father Thomas.
He was taken on strength at Goulburn. His unit finally left Sydney on the ship Port Sydney on 4 September 1916, arriving in England on 29 October.
Euie and the rest of the reinforcements arrived in France in late December 1916, luckily missing the horrendous disaster that was the Battle of Fromelles. Little fighting occurred during the rest of the winter. As the Germans were pushed back to the Hindenburg line in 1917, the Battalion had some engagements during the Second Battle of Bullecourt before being sent to Ypres in Belgium where they took part in the Battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917.
In a fight near the village of Zonnebeke, just north of Polygon Wood, on 17 October 1917 Euie received a gunshot wound to the neck and was transported to the Boulogne Field Hospital before being taken to the Northfield Hospital in England. After a long recuperation, he was back at the front by April 1918 in time to help stem the German Somme offensive around San Quentin.
Only days before the big push against the Germans in August 1918 from near Villers-Bretonneux to mark the start of the Battle of Amiens, Euie came down with neuritis of the shoulder, probably a result of the neck wound. He was taken by the 14th Field Ambulance to the medical clearing station. He may have been driven by Joe Hely who was a driver with that ambulance unit (Joe was my mother’s father and Euie was my father’s uncle).
He was sent back to hospital in England where he was classified as unfit to return to the front. He returned to Australia on the Sardinia on 19 April 1919. He returned to Cathcart and worked as a labourer on the roads for some years. He married Rosie in 1924 and had two daughters. He died in 1975 at the age of 84.

Glendon O'Connor 2015