VAUGHAN, Oswald De Wit
| Service Numbers: | 81, 11/833 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | Unspecified New Zealand Army Units |
| Born: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 23 June 1876 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Melbourne C of E Grammar School |
| Occupation: | Bank Clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 4 October 1917, aged 41 years |
| Cemetery: |
Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial N.Z. Apse, Panel 6. |
| Memorials: | Melbourne Grammar School WW1 Fallen Honour Roll |
Boer War Service
| 1 Oct 1899: | Involvement Private, 81, 1st Tasmanian Mounted Infantry Contingent |
|---|
World War 1 Service
| 4 Oct 1917: | Involvement British Forces (All Conflicts), Corporal, 11/833, Unspecified New Zealand Army Units |
|---|
Help us honour Oswald De Wit Vaughan's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Sharyn Roberts
OSWALD DE WITT VAUGHAN who was killed in action in France on 4th October 1917 was the second son of the Rev. Charles Vaughan of Hobart. He was born in 1876 and was at the School in 1892.
Leaving School at the end of 1892, he entered the service of the Union Bank in Hobart in March 1893.
On, the outbreak of the South African War he enlisted as a Private in the 2nd Tasmanian Contingent, having previously served in the local Volunteer Corps. Towards the end of the campaign he contracted enteric fever in a severe form and spent three months in hospital at Pretoria and Wynberg. On returning home, after a brief period in
the Sydney branch he was transferred to New Zealand, where he served successively at Wellington, Palmerston, North Stratford, and New Plymouth.
In pre-war times his favourite recreations were tennis, fly-fishing, shooting, and rowing, while his yet more social qualities and keen sense of humour won him hosts of friends.
He enlisted in October 1914 in the Wellington Mounted, and two months later embarked for Egypt. Along with many of the mounted New Zealanders, after six months in Egypt he volunteered for the infantry in order to get to Gallipoli.
On the 9th August, in the battle of Sari Bair, he was struck by a bullet over the heart, but fortunately it deflected into his side. In a vessel carrying 2,500 wounded he was conveyed to England and drafted off to King George's Hospital. In the following February he was returned to Egypt, and shortly afterwards transferred to France. Early in September he was again dangerously wounded in the left side, at the Somme, and removed to hospital in Wiltshire, returning to France in June 1917.
His patriotism was pure and unselfish to a degree. Though his education and military experience would have qualified him for higher rank, his desire was to remain a private. Urged repeatedly to accept promotion, he persistently refused, until on the eve of his return to France he reluctantly accepted a Corporal's stripes, and this was followed by his appointment as Quartermaster. He was
killed in action on 4th October.
"The cleanest living fellow I ever knew," is the tribute of a fellow-oarsman of his Hobart days. The head of the great banking
corporation, of which he was a servant, writes of him as "A good officer, conscientious and well liked, whose untimely death is deeply deplored."
Click images to start slideshow.