Name: Clifford O’Regan
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Date of birth: 1894
Place of birth: Tumbarumba
Link to Wagga: Hometown
Date of enlistment: December 11, 1914
Age at enlistment: 21 years 4 months
Occupation: Clerk
Religion: Roman Catholic
Next of kin: Mother, Nora O’Regan, Wagga
Battalion or Regiment: 3rd Reinforcements, 3rd Battalion
Battlefields: Gallipoli (Lone Pine)
Outcome: Returned to Australia, HT ‘Runic’, April 11, 1916
CLIFFORD O’Regan was born at Tumbarumba, one of 11 children born to Jeremiah and
Honoria (Nora), who lived at Peter Street.
He grew up in Wagga, and was an excellent pupil, attending St. Michael’s Kindergarten then St. Joseph’s Boys School.
Clifford was also a member of the Aloysius Society.
His occupation at the time of enlistment was clerk.
Clifford participated in the Battle of Lone Pine at Gallipoli, and on August 7 was hospitalised with ‘shell bruises’, and transferred to St. Elmo Hospital Malta for treatment.
From hospital, he wrote to his parents.
The letter was published in The Daily Advertiser on October 16, 1915, and said:
“On last Friday week our brigade had to attack the Turkish trenches. I was one of the many unlucky enough to be hit. A high explosive shell burst in a firing trench of the 3rd Battalion, and I was wounded in the back. The injured were put aboard a hospital ship and sent over here to Malta. The nurses are really splendid, and they are kept so busy. Australia is doing her share in contributing to the Red Cross funds, and if the people could only see the good their donations do they would feel gratified.”
A second letter dated August 26 read (in part):
“I am now OK and getting about again as good as ever. A lot of us are sailing for England either this afternoon or tomorrow. I suppose we will go into convalescent hospital. We do not know where or when we will see the front again, but probably in France – where it cannot be worse than the Dardanelles. Poor Hubert Meager was right near me in the attack when he was killed. I saw him fall. He knew at once that his wound would prove fatal, but he just called out to us not to bother about him but to pour a heavy fire into the Turks, who were then only a few yards away. He was indeed a brave man, and very popular. We got the Turks on the run at that time, and it was not until a couple of days later I was hit.”
On February 9 1916, Clifford fell dangerously ill and reported to the No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital at Tel-el- Kebir.
He had contracted cerebrospinal meningitis (both clinical and pathological), possibly during his time in hospital.
This was a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease, so it was necessary for Clifford to undergo a period of quarantine (isolation).
He received treatment at the No. 4 Auxiliary Hospital in Abassia (Cairo).
Due to the weakness (debility and pyrexia) that followed, Clifford was deemed to be totally incapacitated and therefore unfit for military service, and was discharged from
the AIF and invalided home to Australia aboard the HT Suez on March 3, 1916.
On returning home, he was admitted to the Randwick Military Hospital for further treatment.
After the war, Clifford took a job in Papua New Guinea.
Here, he was the manager of a plantation at Port Moresby, and became interested in coffee ventures.
Sadly, he died in March 1934, aged 40.
He had not enjoyed robust health for some time prior to his death, but nevertheless, it came as a great shock to his family.