'Another Life For His Country'
A Southland reader sends an appreciation as a slight token of respect to the memory of the late Private Dennis O’Donnell, who recently gave his life for the Empire’s cause at the Dardanelles. Previous to enlisting with the Expeditionary Force, Denny was employed as a surfaceman, and was stationed at Waimatuku, Southland. As a young man, somewhat of a roving and adventurous spirit, he had seen a good deal of life for one of his years, having worked in various parts of New Zealand and the Australian states. So when the call came he was one of the first to respond. Of Irish parents, the late Private O’Donnell was in many respects a splendid man, standing well over six feet in height, and weighing about fifteen stone. He was the possessor of great strength and endurance, ideal conditions in a soldier. Mentally he was rather above the average, having a goodly share of the ready wit and keen intelligence so characteristic of the Irish race. Given the opportunity, he would had gone far in the service, for he had both the will and the ability to achieve. But it was otherwise decreed, and like so many more of the best and bravest of New Zealand’s sons, he lies dead in a foreign land. We trust that not in vain was his life given for a great cause. Peace to his ashes! -Railway Review, 30/7/1915.
Dennis O'Donnell was admitted to an Egyptian hospital on May 7, 1915, and died more than a month later. The wound for which he was admitted was a bullet in his left knee, so it is likely that it developed infection of some kind which became fatal.
Wreys Bush Cemetery.
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