2531 Private Alan Neil O’Shannassy – Lakes Entrance Killed in Action 15 July 1916

….. killed in action, somewhere in the field

Alan O’Shannassy who was born at Anderson’s Inlet in 1895, was the only son of Peter and Sara O’Shannassy. Peter had been a Police Constable at Lakes Entrance from about 1905 to 1915 so Alan would have completed his education and spent his teenage years at Lakes Entrance. Just after he turned twenty, Alan enlisted with the 6 th  Battalion, with both of his parents freely and proudly consenting to him following his ambition. After leaving Australia he transferred to the 58 th  Battalion. He saw action at Gallipoli before being evacuated sick to Lemnos at the end of November 1915. He returned to his battalion on the 15 th  December and with the rest of the battalion was transferred to Serapeum in February 1916. He was then transferred to the 59 th  Battalion and was located at Marseilles on 23 June 1916. Alan’s death is indicative of many. The family received a basic notice that he had been killed in action on 28 August but no particulars were enclosed. What ensued were a stream of letters from both his father and mother pleading for confirmation and more information of what had happened to their only son. It was not until 6 September that a court of enquiry found that he had been killed in action, somewhere in the field. His body was recovered and he was buried in the Rue-Petillon Millitary Cemetery at Fleurbaix. With the number of deaths the Department found itself notify it is little wonder that details were scant. Their anguish was amplified when in 1926, his mother, lost the medals and “dead man’s penny” that she had taken to the city to be mounted. After an anxious fortnight they were reunited with his parents, but their anguish to palpable in their correspondence with the department. Alan O’Shannassy is remembered on the Lakes Entrance memorial.