Other Information:John was educated at Epsom College, where he gained an entrance scholarship, and at St. Marys Hospital, from which he graduated M.B., B.S. of the University of London in 1912, having obtained the Licences of the Society of Apothecaries a few months previously. After serving as house physician at St Mary’s Hospital and assistant resident medical officer at Hanwell Asylum, he joined the R.A.M.C. taking fifth place at the entrance examination. He gained a commission on 24th January 1913, and was stationed at the Connaught Hospital, Aldershot, till he went in medical charge of the 2nd Bn. Highland Light Infantry with the British Expeditionary Force in August 14th. In a letter written to his brother after his death, an anonymous author wrote: ‘I am only too pleased to tell you anything I can about your brother, as he was quite one of ours, and in all your life you can never have a prouder boast than that you were his brother. As I expect you know, we went out on 13th August, and our first show was at Fanieve, near Mons, where he once came to notice. He established his dressing station in a little cottage quite in the open, about 200 yards behind my firing line... He personally went into the trench and helped to carry out the wounded, though the Germans had the range to a T, and were raining shells on it. Then they turned on to his cottage, and knocked it to bits, and again he carried everyone out, not losing a single man...The day I was 'downed' one of my subalterns was knocked out within 300 yards in a 'sort of trench'... As I was being tied up I mentioned him to your brother, and he at once insisted on going to see if he could do anything for him, although it was within very close range of a well constructed German trench, and while doing this he was killed by a rifle bullet through the heart.’ Colonel Wolfe Murray, commanding the Highland Light Infantry, in announcing the sad news of his death to his wife, to whom he was married for only a few months, wrote: ‘He was shot dead in the trenches while attending Lieutenant Fergusson, H.L.I., who had been very seriously wounded, and who himself died later in the day. We all feel his loss most acutely. He performed his duties as a medical officer most efficiently, and was a general favourite with us all. I have never seen any one pluckier; he was just as cool under fire as he was at any other time, and the act which cost him his life was characteristic of him.’ John was described as an ardent Rugby football player, and twice captained his hospital team, besides playing for the London Welsh and London Irish clubs. He was the son of Lieutenant Colonel D. V. O'Connell, R.A.M.C., and the great-grandson of Dr. James Forbes, Inspector-General of the Forces, who served with distinction in the Peninsular War, and was the founder of the Army Medical Mess at Fort Pete, Chatham, which was moved to Netley in 1860.
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