John
O’Neill (10th February 1897 to 16th October 1942)
On the way home from a long weekend in Llandudno I drove onto the Wirral and
headed to Holy Trinity Church in Hoylake. Rows of houses lined the cemetery
which resembles a field with graves in it. It looked like something was missing
- it was - the church. It had been demolished in 1974 having been declared
unsafe.
I soon found John buried under a tree by one of the hedges. He was
just 21 years old and a sergeant in the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment
while fighting in Moorsele in Belgium. On 14th
October 1918 he was in charge of eleven men when they were advancing through
countryside. Suddenly they were under heavy gun fire from two machine-guns. Selflessly
John charged against splaying bullets, silenced the gunners (probably shooting
them dead) and took 16 prisoners. Six days later he rushed at another German
machine-gun position, routing out about 100 prisons and causing many
casualties.
On 2nd August 1919 he was presented with the Victoria Cross
by King George V at Buckingham Palace. Following the end of the war he returned
to England and later served in the British Royal Air Force alongside Lawrence
of Arabia. Through the Second World War he was commissioned into the Auxiliary
Military Pioneer Corps and helped defend Liverpool's docklands from bomb
attacks.
There’s no justice is there – though John was awarded a total eight
medals from his fighting career he died of a heart attack aged 45. Twenty years
after his death all medals were stolen while in the care of a coins/medals
company. None have been recovered.
Good to see he’s visited by others…
The medal is privately held so I can’t
find any photos of it…there it is on the left in a drawing though…
John’s view of the cemetery…
