HENNESSY, ERIC CLAUDE (1910-1964), soldier, hospital attendant and stock-and-station agent, was born on 8 September 1910 at Lithgow, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Percy Reginald Hennessy, furnaceman, and his wife Ethel Florence, née Hammerton. Eric attended primary school, possibly at Pine Rocks, and subsequently found work at nearby Orange as an attendant at the (Bloomfield) Mental Hospital. On 21 November 1933 at St Barnabas's Anglican Church, Sydney, he married Betty Agnes de Lautour; they were divorced in 1939. A member of the 6th Light Horse Regiment, Militia, he had been included in the Australian contingent for the coronation of King George VI in 1937.

Soldiering was Hennessy's passion. On 3 November 1939 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was posted as a sergeant to the 6th Divisional Reconnaissance (later Cavalry) Regiment, a carrier-mounted scouting force. He was commissioned lieutenant in January 1940 during his ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography