Public Contributions:

J O Sullivan born 10 Aug 1891 at Athol Place, Dunedin. [Record since amended - NZWGT]
5137 Private John Ormsby Sullivan 1st AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade, Gallipoli .. & .. 56th Australian (Infantry) Battalion, France. News from the Front ... On the ...11th of November 1916, an infamous pink telegram from the NZ Post & Telegraph Office arrived at 16 Lees Street, Dunedin, the home of John & Margaret Sullivan. The telegram carried the news that all parents who had sons of military enlistment age dreaded ... the Great War, the 'war to end all wars' had claimed the life of their only son. 5137 Private Jack Sullivan, an infantry soldier serving with the 56th (Inf) Battallion, 1st AIF, had been killed on the 9th of October, 1916, by a stray artillery shell that struck his billet which was located in the French village of Fleurbaix, on the Western Front. Fleurbaix was part of the Battalion's Reserve Area located in rear of the then battle front-line at Armentières on the Somme - Jack was 24 years old. Jack was the name Private Sullivan enlisted under. He had abandoned the 'John Ormsby' names possibly because he was usually known as Jack rather than John, but more particularly to differentiate him from his father, John Snr. His forenames had also caused some confusion when the 'Ormsby' initial had been inadvertently linked to 'Sullivan' thereby incorrectly naming him unwittingly as an ' O'Sullivan ' ... or was there another reason ? Over 4,000 AIF soldiers enlisted under false names for a variety of reasons. Some name variations were the result of administrative error, however, most were by design to conceal a man's identity from an event or the circumstances in his past - as was the case with Jack! A family in mourning ... In due course Jack's few meager personal possessions from his person and last known position on the Front, were posted to his parents in 1917 however it would be 1921 before they would receive on behalf of the King and a grateful nation, any formal acknowledgement of their son's service and sacrifice - a Memorial Plaque (also referred to as the 'Death Plaque', 'Death Penny' or 'Dead Man's Penny'), a Memorial Scroll which accompanied the Plaque, the King's Letter which thanked Jack for his commitment and service, a decoratively illustrated King's Appreciation Certificate of Service, and on three separate occasions, a service medal was issued which would eventually represent the sum total of Jack's service and sacrifice, referred to as the 'WW1 Trio' - all awarded posthumously. In 2010 while studying some old family history documents, I stumbled across evidence of my maternal great-grandfather, a man our family never knew existed. Subsequent research on the Internet directed me to the National Archives of Australia and the Australian War Museum and very soon I was able to confirm that 5137 Pte John (Jack) Ormsby Sullivan was indeed that man. Enthused by this discovery I further found out that 18 year old Jack, then a theater pianist in Dunedin, had 'done a runner' to Australia in early 1913 to avoid a paternity claim that was pending against him. Jack ended up in Melbourne and by 24 October 1914 had voluntarily enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for war service in Europe. Jack was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of the Australian Light Horse whose first 'great adventure' as it turned out was not to be fighting the Hun in Europe as they had anticipated, but a new enemy - the Turks on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Jack survived the Battle of Gallipoli only to be transferred to an ANZAC Infantry Battalion when the 3rd ALH Brigade was downsized. The dismounted troops were largely experienced Gallipoli veterans and had been re-assigned as infantry to boost/train the 'green' reinforcements that had arrived direct from Australia to fight on the Western Front. The 9th of October 1916 was to be a 'red letter' day. Pte Jack Sullivan and one civilian were the only deaths recorded in the Battalion's War Diary for that day. Whatever happened to Jack's medals? It was another two years of research before I could finally conclude that Jack's father (John Snr) had more than likely sold his medals in the early 1930s. The family had become financially destitute as a result of the effects of the Great Depression that gripped New Zealand and the rest of the world following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. So I started scouring New Zealand, Australia and made enquiries with medal dealers around the world to try and find Jack's medal trio ('Pip, Squeak & Wilfred'), his Memorial (Death) Plaque, or any of the other commemorative and memorial documents and awards that acknowledged Jack's service and sacrifice - regrettably, no success thus far - I am still looking! Medals and Memories - For Sale ? It is our belief the rightful place of any war and service medal is with a veteran’s surviving kin. This belief together with my unsuccessful search to locate Jack's' medals, also reinforced in me that there was a need for a service in New Zealand to return lost and found medals to their rightful descendant families .... and so Medals Reunited New Zealand was founded to do just that. Our research focus is on the deceased New Zealand veterans (mainly WW1) whose names are engraved on medals, or medals that can be verified by some other accompanying document, photo etc, e.g. WW2 medals that were normally issued unnamed. Using our world-wide network of resources, we attempt to trace surviving family or a descendant whom we can reunite with their ancestor's medals. By reuniting medals with kin, we also hope to rekindle their interest in safeguarding these precious taonga for future generations, and for families and descendants to honour the sacrifice and memory of their war veteran ancestors by wearing their medals on appropriate occasions. Honouring their sacrifice and memory ... Ian D. Martyn Founder Medals Reunited New Zealand ©2014 NEW ZEALAND ++64 27 940 4495 (mobile) E [[email protected]] W [www.medalsreunitednz.co.nz] Read More