PATRICK O'NEILL
Whilst there is much evidence to suggest that Patrick O'Neill should be recognised as a soldier who lost his life during the Great War, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website does not seem to list him.
Apart from appearing on the Cenotaph, the name of O'Neill (or O'Neil), P, is listed on the City of Portsmouth Passenger Transport Department under the heading of 'Conductor'. This coincides with the 1911 census which records Patrick O'Neill (b. 1879 in Ireland) who was a Tramway Conductor, living with his wife Lydia Lucy (b. 1881, nee Mursell) and daughter Mary Elizabeth (b. 1907) at 1 Rose Cottage, Arundel Street.
There are no other positive recordings of Patrick in other censuses, though one possibility is the listing of a Patrick O'Neill as a Sapper at Fort Monkton, Gosport in 1901.
The National Roll of the Great War contains a reference to a Patrick O'Neill who was a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. It goes on to say that he enlisted at the start of the War and was posted to the National Reserve at Aldershot where he rendered 'valuable services' and goes on to say that he was invalided out in August 1915 and died in January 1916 at Landport Hospital. He is buried in a plain grave in Kingston Cemetery, with his wife Lydia, (Grave Ref: Catholic.26.19).
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists no one with the name O'Neill, first name begining with P, who was in the RAMC and died in January 1916.
Patrick O'Neill is however remembered on the City of Portsmouth Passenger Transport Department WW1 Memorial, and the Cenotaph in Portsmouth. He is also listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X, 170.
Tim Backhouse
March 2014