Personal Items
News has been received by Mr L. Clancy, of Caversham, that his son, Lieutenant William Sarsfield Clancy, has been awarded the Military Medal and received his commission for conspicuous services on the Somme battlefield. Lieutenant Clancy left with the Main Body, was all through the Gallipoli campaign (during which, he was wounded slightly), and has been in France since the New Zealand troops first went there. -Press, 19/1/1917.
On June 13, 1917, the Otagos were ordered to advance over no-man's-land in the dark and progressively occupy the advanced German positions opposite theirs. As the Otago Regiment's Official History puts it: "It was calculated that the undertaking was a comparatively simple one; that it was merely a question of dribbling forward small parties unobserved by the enemy and seizing successive objectives on the way, each objective affording support and covering fire for the capture of the next. It was further presumed that the enemy had withdrawn his main strength. The task, however, was really beset with many difficulties, and was by no means as easy of accomplishment as was anticipated."
In the dark, with no artillery support and German guns firing as the result of earlier aerial reconnaisance, the night attack was a failure. William Clancy was wounded with a bullet in the spine. He never walked again.
Many returned men yesterday attended the funeral of the late Lieutenant William Sarsfield Clancy, who left with the Main Body of the N.Z.E.F.; in 1914, and the special R.S.A. service was read over the grave at the Anderson’s Bay cemetery. Deceased, who was well known, was severely injured as a result of his war service, but bore his suffering lightly. -Evening Star, 1/11/1934.
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