John Patrick O’Brien’s body lay unclaimed in Waikato Hospital’s morgue for two months until the Cambridge RSA stepped in and found a resting place at Hautapu for the Vietnam veteran. Six months on senior writer Mary Anne Gill talks to the niece who tried to find him seven years ago.
The O’Brien photo album has hundreds of smiling faces and occasions when the large extended family came together to celebrate and mourn.
But there is one person missing.
The only known recent photo of John O’Brien.
None of the family can find a recent photo of John Patrick O’Brien, the youngest of four children born to Patrick Gerald O’Brien and Rose Elizabeth Cochrane.
The English-born, Australian raised New Zealand returned serviceman died in Hamilton on March 2 this year, 12 days before his 80th birthday. No one came to claim his body, so Grinter’s undertaker Jim Goddin approached the Cambridge RSA who agreed to bury John in Hautapu Cemetery’s RSA section.
A service was held on May 18 with 17 people attending, including The News. After our story about John was published, we learned a little more about him – but in a significant breakthrough last week, his niece Suzanne Baillie contacted us.
“Thank you for the article – it was very sad to hear about John’s death. We would not have known otherwise,” she said. “John is my father Anthony’s brother – I am one of his nieces. My father is still alive and has been informed of his brother’s death today. I am trying to piece together his life with my sisters.”
Suzanne’s sisters Colleen and Selina – with Selina’s daughters Sophie and Brianna – came from Queensland, Australia to New Zealand in 2016 to look for their uncle and came agonisingly close to finding him when they visited Hamilton.
“His sister Theresa had mentioned him many times over the years and would have loved to be in contact with him, but no one had his contact details.”
Jim Goddin, Jon Broadley, Tony Hill, Mike Madden, Lionel Orr, Rob Good, Sharon Smith, Janine and Darren Sutton (Te Awamutu), Julie Strawbridge, Dawn Babbington, Andrew and Cathy Cuming, John Taylor, Ants Hawkes. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Theresa, 86, is still alive but has dementia and lives in a nursing home while her brother Anthony, 85, now lives on an island in the Philippines where phone reception is poor. The other sibling, Margaret, died of breast cancer in 1984 aged only 42.
“All I can tell you is his family always spoke fondly of him and always wondered what ever happened to him. The only information we had was he was in the army for 20 years,” said Selina.
“I’m unaware if he ever married and had children. My mum has mentioned over the years that John had sent a letter to his mum many years ago and she said he had one in his likeness.
“I not sure what that means, but we always took it that to mean he had a child,” said Selina.
“But I can tell you he has a very large extended family in Australia. My father has seven children, and we all have children, and Dad even has a great grandchild.”
Theresa had three children and Margaret two. Ceinwen Carruthers, Margaret’s daughter, lived in Tokoroa in the early 1990s and is thought to be the last family member to talk to John. She now lives in Queensland.
John O’Brien, on truck, while serving the New Zealand Army. Photo: Mike Madden.
John, his parents, and sister Margaret settled in Australia in 1957 – when John was 14 – landing in Sydney from London on the P & O Company’s Strathnaver. Theresa and Anthony came out separately three years earlier.
Selina had no idea her grandparents moved to New Zealand. John told friends he came to New Zealand when he was young and when his parents moved to Australia, he stayed put.
“Could it have been a holiday they went on? I thought John went on his own. As far as I know my dad hasn’t seen him since he went to New Zealand.”
John joined the New Zealand Army on February 6, 1963 and served in the Service Corps. He had a two-month stint in Vietnam in 1965.
He left the army on February 20, 1967, but 52 days later he rejoined and was transferred into the Corps of Transport where he stayed until March 28, 1983.
Staff Sergeant John Patrick O’Brien, front row, third from right, in Singapore while serving in the New Zealand Army’s E Platoon 18 Transport Company. Next to him, fourth from right is Lieutenant Mike Madden. Photo: Mike Madden.
After John left the army, he worked at the Hillcrest Tavern and then for several years at Fonterra in Te Awamutu. He moved to Hamilton 12 years ago and was living in Thames Street when his nieces and grand nieces were looking for him in the city.
“It is sad. I know his family wanted to see him,” said Selina.
Meanwhile the four unclaimed New Zealand service medals John O’Brien earned in the Army, are still in safe keeping at Defence Force headquarters in Wellington.
- Do you know more? Email [email protected]
- See: Loner’s last post
- See: Fallen soldier’s history revealed
