O'Brien Christopher Ronald Pte 5182881
Personnel Entry
Name O'Brien Christopher Ronald
Army number 5182881
Rank Private.
Decorations
Date of birth 1/8/1918.
Age 52 at the time of his death.
Unit Enlisted in the Gloucester Regiment, Territorial Army - discharged 25/2/39 on Termination of Engagement. Re-Enlisted 1/7/1939 and posted to 5th Battalion, Gloucester Regiment. Transferred to Reconnaissance Corps 14/10/41. Transferred back to Gloucester Regiment 1/4/42. Transferred to the Somerset Light Infantry 22/6/1943 and posted to the 9th Battalion. Transferred to The Durham Light Infantry 18/4/1944. Posted to the 10th Battalion The DLI. Served Normandy. Posted missing 22/6/1944. Now known to have been wounded and captured in Normandy and made a Prisoner of War - probably 22/6/1944. Repatriated to the UK 14/8/1944 - probably due to his injuries. Discharged under King's Regulations 1940 Para 390 (xvi) 12/2/1945 as unfit for further service.
Company/Battery
Platoon or other sub-unit
Task or role
Joined Brigade 18/4/1944 on transfer from the Somerset Light Infantry.
Promotions
Wounded Yes, fractured left leg and gun-shot wound in right leg sustained in Normandy - actual date in the process of confirmation, but seems to have been 22/6/1944. Records show him as a patient in Rennes Military Hospital along with many other Allied troops and there is a suggestion from those records that he was wounded on 1st July 1944. If that is the case, this may have been during the Defence of Rauray.
Prisoner of War Yes - following his wounding he was made a prisoner and taken to hospital. His PoW status was not confirmed until 24/9/1944.
Died/Killed in action Death registered in June 1971 at Kingswood, Gloucestershire at the age of 52. Cause of death - Coronary Occlusion and Atheroma. Registered by his son, Roger, who was in attendance at the death.
Home address Research shows that he married Mary E K Gay at Kingswood in the second quarter of 1939. He was living at 17, Fairford Close, Kingswood at the time of his death.
Source table PBM
Gloucester Regiment Books show this man as 5181081 whereas his uniform stamps, the Rennes Hospital records and the DLI Regimental Books have him as 5182881.
The author was contacted in 2017 by Canadian militaria collector Duncan Stirk, who had purchased Private O'Brien's battledress blouse and has restored it to the insignia and markings it would have had at the time of his wounding. Images of the restored blouse are set out below.
