Pte 88140 Patrick James O'Brien

• Age: 30
• From: Dublin
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Friday 8th November 1918
• Commemorated at: Dourlers Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: II.C.3

Patrick James O’Brien was born in Dublin. However, it has not been possible to identify this soldier with certainty, so his parents, family, and early life are not known.

His medal roll shows that he served in the 12th Lancers, the 1/st Lancashire Hussars, and the 18th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. 

He served as Pte. 602 in the 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers and was discharged in August 1915. If we assume he served the customary 12 years he would have enlisted in 1903 at the age of 16.  

In 1911 Patrick, 27, is found with the 12th Lancers stationed in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, about 70 miles southwest of Johannesburg. 

Following further imperial garrison duties, the regiment, which had been based in Norwich at the start of the war, landed in France as part of the 5th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, on 18th August 1914.  Ten days later, on 28th August 1914, during the retreat from Mons, the regiment engaged the enemy at Moy, with 'C' Squadron making a successful charge against a dismounted squadron of Prussian Dragoons, while ‘A’ and ‘B’ squadrons maintained rapid and accurate fire on the enemy. This action, costing four killed and five wounded, was the last occasion in which the regiment charged with lances, and is celebrated by the regiment to this day. 

They remained on the Western Front for the rest of the war, fighting in both a mounted and dismounted role, and winning many honours, including Mons (1914), Marne (1914), Aisne (1914), First Ypres (1914), Neuve Chapelle (March 1915), and Second Ypres (April-May 1915).

Patrick was discharged on termination of engagement on 28th August 1915. As he married in Alverstoke later that year, it is possible that he was based for a time at Fort Brockhurst, Alverstoke, near Gosport, a demobilisation centre.

Patrick married Nellie Florence Cottingham in the December quarter of 1915. Nellie had a son William Alexander Cottingham born in 1914, who was raised as his son and took the name O’Brien. Their daughter Eileen Patricia O’Brien was born on 24th October 1916 in Portsmouth.

He was formerly 27929, Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry and was serving with the 18^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 88140 when he was killed in action on the 08th November 1918, aged 30, during the hundred days offensive which ended the First World War (8^th August-11^th November 1918). 

The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for three years, re-enlisting in October or November 1915, soon after he was discharged.

At the time of his death, warfare had become mobile, with the British Army harrying the Germans, who would retreat to a position, fight, then retreat once more. The day before he was killed the Battalion had just marched from Mariollers to Marbaix in France, when it was ordered to take a position in the line near Marbaix, from the 1/5th Gloucestershire Regiment.

On the following day, 08th November an attack was commenced at 07.30am supported by the 100th Battalion Machine Gun Corps and artillery fire. Despite their support, the advancing troops encountered fierce rifle and machine gun fire from the German position’s. Although the attack was eventually successful, two more officers and thirty six other ranks were to be wounded, and fourteen other ranks Killed, only three days before the Armistice.

Patrick was evidently listed as Missing, as Soldiers’ Effects shows that his death was assumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on 8th November 1918.

As such he was one of those 14 other ranks referred to as killed in action. 

Patrick signed a will on 1st August 1918:

“In the event of my death I give the whole of my property and effects to my wife, Mrs. Nellie Florence O’Brien, 15 Belmont Street, Southsea, Hants.”

He was buried close to where he fell and, after the war when graves were concentrated, Patrick’s body was removed and reinterred in Dourlers Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, about 10 miles south of Mauberge, with 13 others from his battalion who were killed on the same day.

Dourlers village was in German hands during almost the whole of the First World War. It was taken on 07th November 1918, after heavy fighting, by the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 1st K.O.Y.L.I. The communal cemetery was used by the Germans during the war, but in November 1918, a small extension was made by Commonwealth troops at the west end. After the Armistice, the German graves from the communal cemetery and others from the battlefields, together with Commonwealth graves from isolated positions and small cemeteries, were brought into the extension which contains 161 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 14 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to four casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The extension also contains 108 German burials, 62 of which are unidentified.

His widow Nellie, at 15 Belmont Street, Southsea, Portsmouth, was awarded a pension of £1-5s-5d for herself and two children from June 1919.  Sadly, it appears that Eileen died a few months later at the age of 3.

Nellie received Patrick’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £10-10s and an “Additional War Gratuity” of £6-10s.

His 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal issued under #602 12th Lancers, were returned and reissued.  Nellie received his medals, then living at 37 Penton Place, Kennington Park Road, London S.E.17.  She also lived at 39 Reedworth Street, Kennington, S.E.11, at some point.

In 1939 Nellie is living at 47a King Street, Arundel, Sussex, with married son William A. O’Brien and his family. William, 25, is a public works contractor’s labourer.

Nellie died a few months later, aged 52.  William died in 1983.

Patrick is commemorated on Ireland’s National Roll of Honour

We currently have no further information on Patrick James O’Brien, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.