Search our stories
Lance Corporal Timothy (Tim) O'Brien, 40756, 1st Bn., West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
05/03/2024
First World War Army United Kingdom
By John and Mary Holland

United Kingdom

Lance Corporal T O'Brien
22405
View record on CWGC
Wounded in 1916 and again in 1917 from which he would die.

Timothy O’Brien (Moger) was the middle of three sons (James (Jim), Tim (Timothy) and Thomas (Tom)), born to Annie O’Brien (nee McCoy). Sadly, their father died when they were very young. His mother then remarried my Great Grandfather, John Henry Moger, a Professional Tailor. John and Annie went on to have five more children, including twins Mary Agnes and my Grandmother Harriot. Annie Moger died on 19th December 1905 not long after the birth of her son Arthur Joseph, aged 40.

Family photograph of Annie Moger the mother of Timothy O'Brien (copyright unknown)

Annie’s first three sons took the name of their stepfather (Moger) and he was tasked with juggling work as a Jobbing Tailor and taking care of his family. This challenge became even harder following his wife’s death.

When WW1 broke out, Tim wanted to volunteer to serve his country, albeit my Great Grandfather wasn’t overly keen, but he nevertheless enlisted, using his original surname of O’Brien.

We have tried to locate Tim’s war service records, but many WW1 records stored at Kew got destroyed during the blitz of London during WW2, it transpires that his were amongst them. The only records we have found provides a partial answer as to why he had been so difficult to research.

Tim was actually issued with two service number, the first being 5356 and the second which the CWGC have used is 40756.

This clearly uses his first service number of 5356 (copyright unknown)

We understand that this is most likely as a result of Tim being wounded on 24th July 1916, returned to England to recover, then redeployed back to the front line after being allocated a new service number of 40756.

Confirms 40756 L/Cpl Timothy O'Brien died of wounds (copyright unknown)

Injured for a second time, Tim died of wounds on 22nd June 1917 aged 26 Remembered with Honour, Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery

When researching other relatives involved in the WW2 conflict, we came across Tim’s stepfather on the 1939 census, working in London as a Tailor providing officers uniforms at the age of 64 doing his bit for the country before returning to Skipton in North Yorkshire. John Henry Moger died on 28th December 1962 aged 91.

This is a family photograph of John Henry Moger (circa 1950) with nieces Mary and Frances Holland (copyright unknown)
Great Nephews Rt Rev. Philip R Moger, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark and John A Holland (2023) (copyright family)

The family photograph above is from the Episcopal Ordination of Tim's Great Nephew Rt Rev. Philip R Moger, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, Titular Bishop of Glastonia on 21st February 2023. Also John A Holland, President of the Broughton Catholic Charitable Society (2023-24) and Grandson of Harriot Holland (nee Moger), Tim's half sister.