CAMBRIDGE NEWS | 1
THURSDAY MAY 25, 2023
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MAY 25, 2023
Loner’s last post By Mary Anne Gill
John Patrick ‘Aussie’ O’Brien was a “hell of a nice guy”, yet his body lay unclaimed in the Waikato Hospital morgue for two months. Despite appeals for family to come forward and claim the body of the former army staff sergeant, who friends describe as a loner, no one did. So up stepped the Cambridge RSA. O’Brien was farewelled with a graveside memorial service at the Hautapu Cemetery’s RSA section last week thanks to Grinter’s funeral director Jim Goddin who uplifted the body from a first storey Hamilton unit on behalf of the coroner on March 4, two days after his death. It was Goddin who made the formal application to authorities to claim O’Brien’s body from the morgue after notices placed in newspapers and army publications resulted in nothing. He approached Brigadier Jon Broadley and Cambridge RSA president Tony Hill who said they would give O’Brien a proper farewell befitting his 20-year army service. Retired chaplain Ants Hawes led the service and bugler Doug Rose played the Last Post. Broadley read details of O’Brien’s
service and Hill gave him an emotional send-off noting he knew two of the men buried either side of him and they were top chaps. Two men who served in the New Zealand Army with him were there – Mike Madden and Lionel Orr – as was Julie Strawbridge,
the neighbour who found O’Brien’s body, and her friend Dawn Babbington. Sharon Smith, the Waikato Real Estate property manager for his Thames Street, Hamilton unit and Rob Good, the maintenance manager, both attended as did Darren and
Janine Sutton, his former neighbours in Te Awamutu when O’Brien worked at the Fonterra factory. Rounding out the onlookers were Andrew and Cathy Cuming, John Taylor and Goddin himself. Seventeen people in all – including The News – recited
The Ode of Remembrance “We will remember them.” But missing from those memories are whether Aussie O’Brien had any family. What is known is he was born in Australia on March 14, 1943 – so he died 12 days before his 80th birthday - and came to New Zealand as a
young boy. When his family returned to Australia, he stayed put and joined the army on February 6, 1963, serving in the Service Corps, which included a two-month stint in Vietnam in 1965. He left the army on February 20, 1967, but 52
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Lionel Orr places the ashes of John Patrick O’Brien into his grave watched by from left: Ants Hawkes, Jim Goddin, Doug Rose, Jon Broadley and Tony Hill. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
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