Name
Eric Winfield Connelly (DSO)
18 September 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/09/1918
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Major
Australian Division
3rd H.Q.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Distinguished Service Order
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEATH CEMETERY, HARBONNIERES
X. B. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
TO CONQUER IS TO LIVE ENOUGH
UK & Other Memorials
Digswell House Australian Hospital Memorial, St John's Church, Digswell
Pre War
Eric Winfield Connelly was born in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia on 18 September 1888, the son of Frances and Thomas Connelly. Occupation: Barrister at Law. He married Dorothy McLellan and they lived at 'Waverley', Wellington Street, Middle Brighton, Victoria.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 18 September 1914 as a Captain at the 10th Infantry brigade HQ. His unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board A11 Ascanius on 27 May 1916.
Whilst serving in France, he was promoted to the rank of Major on 3 March 1917. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 18 April 1918 for 'untiring energy and skill under trying circumstances'.
After he was gassed on the morning of 7 June 1917 during an attack on Messines Ridge and rendered unconscious for eight hours, Major Connelly went forward to Battalion HQ and organised a successful attack on the enemy line, returning through intense shell fire in a state of complete exhaustion.
The following year, whilst attached to the 3rd Australian Division HQ, Maj Connelly died of wounds in France, after a bomb was dropped by a German aeroplane.
Additional Information
His only brother Clive Emerson Connelly also died when he was killed in action near Hill 60 on 27 August 1915. Commemorated on Lone Pine memorial, Gallipoli. His mother, Mrs F C Connelly of 6 Westbury St, East St, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, order the headstone inscription: "TO CONQUER IS TO LIVE ENOUGH"
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
aif.adfa.edu.au
