Memorials & Monuments
on the Isle of Wight
- Biography -
- Henry Michael O'Hare -

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PRESS

Saturday, November 7, 1914 Page 5

THE ISLAND AND THE WAR
SANDOWN MAN WOUNDED
Bombr. Cecil O'Hare, son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick O'Hare, of Glen-I-Maal, St. John's-road, Sandown, who was engaged as observing officer in the Royal Field Artillery, was wounded in the left arm at Armentieres. At the time of writing he is receiving attention at the Exeter temporary hospital, but was expected home in the course of the week.

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PRESS

Saturday, December 22, 1917 Page 1

KILLED IN ACTION ETC.
O'HARE. - Killed in action in France, Sergt. Henry Michael O'Hare R.F.A., third son of Sergt.-Major and Mrs. O'Hare, of Glen-Imaal, St John's-road, Sandown, aged 24.

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PRESS

Saturday, December 22, 1917 Page 5

SANDOWN
Much regret is expressed at the death of Sergt. H.M. O'Hare, R.F.A., one of the four sons of Sergt. Major O'Hare of Glen-Imaal, St. John's-road (three of whom are still serving), who has fallen on the Western Front. Sergt. O'Hare was in the R.G.A. when war broke out, having joined as a trumpeter. Later he transferred to the R.F.A. and was one of the first to be awarded the Military Medal. He was three times mentioned in despatches in 1915. He met his death while engaged in some particularly gallant, and dangerous work, as related in a letter which Mrs. O'Hare has received from Father B.J. Whiteside, a Roman Catholic chaplain serving with the division. Father Whiteside writes: "it is difficult to offer any mother solid consolation in afflictions like this, but perhaps a few lines from me, as the Catholic chaplain whose privilege it was to know Sergt. O'Hare very well and learn his splendid qualities as a soldier and a Catholic, may help to soothe your feelings. I have been attending the battery for many months, and when I visited the guns it was generally your own son, with his cheery smile and warm welcome, who helped me to find out the Catholics to give Absolution and Holy Communion; and again, when the men were further back, it was Sergt. O'Hare and his friend, Sergt. Holdsworth, who conducted the men to my Sunday Mass. It is only a Catholic chaplain who realizes what a very precious possession it is to have a good Catholic sergeant in a battery, and I have been very sincerely grateful for your son's help many and many a time. It was naturally I who buried him. An officer and a large party of men accompanied the body. The full Catholic service was read, and the very impressive 'last post' was sounded by a trumpeter ... Your boy was well prepared to meet his end. He has made the supreme sacrifice for us all, and without doubt God will give him a great reward for the good he has done. An officer of the battery came specially to tell me how your boy was killed, and asked me to tell you that the Major and the other officers consider Sergt. O'Hare's death a tremendous loss. He was about the best and most willing N.C.O. they had, and they would rather that any N.C.O. had been killed than he. The incident which led to his death was typical of his sterling soldierly qualities. Some material lying near the ammunition had caught fire, and there was great danger of the ammunition blowing up, so Sergt. O'Hare called for volunteers to extinguish the fire. Four men went with him, and they succeeded in stopping the danger. However, some further danger remained, and Sergt. O'Hare then dismissed the volunteers and went himself, with an officer, removing the burning material. The Boches must have seen them in the open, for a shell came over and exploded near your son. He was mortally wounded in the back, was carried to shelter, and died cheerful to the end. God bless him for a brave soldier and a splendid example to the men. What to me is better praise than that from the officers is that the men and other N.C.O.s are very loud in their praise of him and spoke to me very sorrowfully and sadly. 'The most popular sergeant in the battery,' said one man. You ought to be very proud of your gallant boy, for if every British soldier were like him the war would have been won long ago. Officers will miss him, the men will miss him, and not least, the chaplain will miss him." A Requiem Mass will be celebrated for the repose of his soul at the Catholic Church, Beachfield-road, on Friday, and on Sunday the Rev. Father Flynn prefaced his sermons with a few touching remarks, stating that on the previous Sunday the banns of the sergeant's intended marriage were published for the third time. Now, by the inscrutable mystery of God's providence, their joy was turned into sorrow.