Martin O'Meara, VC (6 November 1885 – 20 December 1935) was an Irish-born Australian recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

forces.

Early life

O'Meara was born at

Lorrha Lorrha (from ) is a small village at the northern tip of County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located on a minor road between the R489 Birr to Portumna road and the N65 Nenagh to Portumna road about five kilometres east of the point where the Ri ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

. He spent his early years in County Tipperary and by 1911 had moved to County Kilkenny where he was working as a wood cutter. He arrived in South Australia in 1912, where he initially worked as a labourer at Wild Horse Plains. He then travelled to Port Augusta where he worked as a labourer on railway construction projects, and then to the McLaren Vale area south of Adelaide where he was, again, a railway construction worker. He travelled to Western Australia in 1914 and worked as a labourer in the Pinjarra area before making his way to the Collie area. He was working as a sleeper cutter near Collie before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force on 19 August 1915.

First World War

Assigned to

16th Battalion 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

as a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

, O'Meara sailed from Fremantle on the troopship Ajana on 22 December 1915. He arrived at Port Suez in Egypt on 13 January 1916. He initially served with the 16th Battalion in Egypt as an infantryman and as a machine gunner with the 4th Machine Gun Company before arriving in France on 7 June 1916. In late June 1916 he joined the 16th Battalion's newly formed Scouting Section in northern France and served as a scout, observer and sniper during his time on the Western Front in Belgium and France. Between 9 and 12 August 1916 at Mouquet Farm,

Pozières Pozières (; ) is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The commune is situated on the D929 road, northeast of Amiens between Albert and Bapaume, on the Pozières ridge. Southwest of the village on ...

, during four days of very heavy fighting, Private O'Meara repeatedly went out and brought in wounded officers and men from "

no man's land No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...

" under intense

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

and

machine-gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

fire. He also volunteered and carried up ammunition and bombs through a heavy barrage to a portion of the trenches which was being heavily shelled at the time. O'Meara was wounded three times during the war: near Mouquet farm in August 1916, near Bullecourt in April 1917 and near Messines in August 1917. He was presented with his Victoria Cross medal by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917. In mid-1918 he was selected to join a group of Australian Victoria Cross recipients to return to Australia to assist with recruiting. He was promoted to Sergeant in late August 1918 and left England on 17 September 1918 on the troopship Arawa, arriving at Fremantle in Western Australia on 6 November 1918. On 7 November 1918 the Arawa's passengers were quarantined at Woodman's Point south of Perth because of a suspected influenza outbreak. Albert Jacka and Martin OMeara 1916

Later life

O'Meara had a mental breakdown in November 1918 at the Woodman's Point Quarantine Station south of Perth, shortly after arriving in Western Australia. On 13 November 1918 he was transported to the 24th Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Stromness, where he was diagnosed on 19 December 1918 as: O'Meara was transferred to the Claremont Hospital for the Insane on 3 January 1919, and to the newly constructed Lemnos Soldier's Hospital on 20 September 1926. He remained at Lemnos until returning to the Claremont hospital shortly before his death in December 1935 at the age of 50 years. His body was buried in

Karrakatta Cemetery Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Ce ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia.

The medal

O'Meara's Victoria Cross is held in the collections of the

Army Museum of Western Australia The Army Museum of Western Australia is a museum located in an historic artillery barracks on Burt Street in Fremantle, Western Australia. The museum was established in 1977 and has three Victoria Crosses on display. History The Army Museum ...

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

. In July 2019 it was loaned by the Australian government to the

National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann) is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has thre ...

, where it will be on public display for twelve months. The loan required an amendment to the ''Protection of Moveable Cultural Heritage Act'' (1986) to allow for the "temporary export of important cultural artefacts".

References

External links

Ian Loftus' Martin O'Meara site

Fred Rea's Martin O'Meara site

Digital copy of O'Meara's WW1 service record

Australian War Memorial's Martin O'Meara page

Biography: ''The most fearless and gallant soldier I have ever seen''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omeara, Martin Irish emigrants to Australia (before 1923) Australian World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross Australian Battle of the Somme recipients of the Victoria Cross Irish Battle of the Somme recipients of the Victoria Cross Australian Army soldiers People from County Tipperary 1885 births 1935 deaths Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery Lorrha Military personnel from County Tipperary