For Posterity's Sake         

A Royal Canadian Navy Historical Project

 

They made the Ultimate Sacrifice 

 

Wallace Ian O'Hara, M.I.D.

 

Ordinary Seaman, V5908, RCNVR

 

Born:  04 May 1919, Montreal, Quebec

 

Died: 26 Mar 1941 at sea

 

Book of Remembrance

 

O'HARA, Wallace Ian, OS, V5908, RCNVR, MPK - 26 Mar 1941, HMCS OTTER - son of William Wallace and Eva Maud O'Hara, of Westmount, QC.

 

The ship's lifeboat went back to HMCS Otter to rescue Lieutenant Mossman. However, the lifeboat was overcrowded and three seamen (Ordinary Seaman Ian O'Hara, Ordinary Seaman John Slavin, and Able Seaman Thomas Guildford left the lifeboat to take their chances with others clinging to a float to relive the over-crowding in the life-boat. Ordinary Seaman O'Hara unfortunately drowned.

 

Ordinary Seaman Wallace Ian O'Hara was a graduate of Westmount High School before is enlistment. He was survived by his parents William Wallace and Eva Maud O'Hara, of Westmount, Quebec and two sisters Margery and Myrna O'Hara

 


 

Citation for Mentioned in Despatches:

 

O'Hara, Ian Wallace, Ordinary Seaman, V5908, Posthumous Mention in Despatches

 

"For gallantry and devotion to duty when HMCS OTTER was lost."

 


 

Ships served in:

MONTREAL DIVISION RCNVR - Commenced Active Service 09 Aug 1940

HMCS STADACONA - Drafted to STADACONA 21 Aug 1940 as an OS, RCNVR

HMCS OTTER - Drafted to OTTER 01 Jan 1941 as an OS, RCNVR

 

OH01

OH02

OH03

OH04

(OH01) Certificate of Service

(OJ02) Naval Training and Active Service record

(OH03) Report of Death

(OH04) Newspaper article on the death Tel Earl Day and Seaman Wallace O'Hara

 


 

Second World War Casualty Index

 

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