Bert O'Connell
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| Bert O'Connell | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Herbert Dean O'Connell | ||
| Date of birth | 7 September 1885 | ||
| Place of birth | Windsor, Victoria | ||
| Date of death | 17 October 1917 (aged 32) | ||
| Place of death | Broodseinde, Passchendaele salient, Belgium | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1908 | St Kilda | 2 (0) | |
| 1909 | Footscray (VFA) | 16 (6) | |
|
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1908. | |||
| Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com | |||
Herbert Dean O'Connell (7 September 1885 – 17 October 1917) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He died of wounds sustained in action as a member of the First AIF, in World War I.[1]
The son of Walter James O'Connell, and Annie Jane O'Connell (1857–1899), née Kemp,[2][3] Herbert Dean O'Connell was born at Windsor, Victoria on 7 September 1885.
He married Ruby Evelyn Henderson (1890–?) on 17 June 1916 at All Saints Anglican Church, East St Kilda.[4]
Football
Recruited from the South Yarra Amateur Football Club in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association (MJFA)[broken anchor], he made his VFL debut, on the wing, with the St Kilda First XVIII in the round 17 match against Fitzroy, at the Junction Oval, 15 August 1908.[5][6]
His second, and final match for St Kilda was in the round 18 match against Richmond, the final home-and-away game of the 1908 season, held on 5 September 1908 (the competition had been suspended for two weeks to accommodate the 1908 Melbourne Carnival).
The following season O'Connell played with Footscray in the Victorian Football Association.[7][8]
Military service
Employed as an etcher, O'Connell enlisted in the First AIF on 14 February 1916, and he embarked for Europe on 1 August 1916 after completing basic training.
After serving in England as a bayonet instructor in early 1917, O'Connell was transferred to the 60th Battalion on 8 October 1917.
Death
Burial
A letter, written to O'Connell's wife, Ruby, dated 5 September 1921,[11] informed her that there was now "little doubt" that the individual interred as a (previously unidentified) corporal was "identical with" O'Connell, and that, as a consequence, "the Imperial War Graves Commission have decided to erect over the grave [of the previously unidentified corporal] a provisional cross marked "Believed to be 2236, Cpl.H.D.O'Donnell, 60th Battalion, A.I.F."."