Bill O'Hara (footballer, born 1879)
# Bill O'Hara (footballer, born 1879)

William Ernest O'Hara (9 January 1879 – 3 May 1941) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

## Family

The son of eminent surgeon Henry Michael O'Hara (1853–1921), and his first wife, Ernestine Ellen O'Hara (1857–1883), née Klingender, William Ernest O'Hara was born in St Kilda on 9 January 1879.

## Education

Educated at Brighton Grammar School, and at the University of Melbourne, he moved to Edinburgh in 1901 to continue his medical studies and, on 15 December 1905 "William Ernest O'Hara, L.R.S.C.E." was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

## Football

### St Kilda (VFL)

Recruited from Collegians Football Club in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association (MJFA) in 1900, he played his first match for St Kilda, against Melbourne, at the Junction Oval on 5 May 1900. He played well all season and, in all, played 13 games and scored 3 goals.

Although he would otherwise have continued to play, he was not available to St Kilda in the next season (1901), due to his move to Edinburgh to continue his medical studies.

### Ulverstone (NWFA)

He joined the Ulverstone Football Club in Tasmania's North Western Football Association (NWFA).

In 1907 he was part of a representative North West Coast team that was thrashed 23.19 (157) to 3.4 (22) by the Melbourne Football Club on its 1907 Tasmanian tour, at Latrobe, on 6 June 1907.

## Medicine

Having worked in various U.K. hospitals for a time after his qualification to gain additional experience, he returned to Australia in 1906, and moved to Ulverstone, Tasmania where he practised with Sir John McCall. In addition to his registration in Victoria, on his move to Ulverstone he was also registered in Tasmania:

       THE GAZETTE The "Gazette" of the 5th inst. contains the following notifications:— Court of Medical Examiners. — William Ernest O'Hara, L.R.C.P. Edin., 1903, L.R.C.S. Edin. 1903, L.F.P.S. Glasg. 1903, F.R.C.S. Edin. 1905, has been registered as a legally-qualified medical practitioner in Tasmania. (Address, Ulverstone.) — The Mercury, 6 June 1906.

He left his practice Ulverstone in June 1907, and moved to Leonora in the West Australian goldfields. In 1911, he left Leonora, and returned to Melbourne in order to take charge of his father's Collins Street practice. In 1912, he was appointed honorary clinical assistant to the out-patient surgeon at The Alfred Hospital.

After World War I, he conducted a medical practice in Shanghai for more than twenty years.

## Military service

He enlisted in the First AIF on 4 August 1915, and served overseas in the Australian Army Medical Corps.

## Death

He died in Shanghai, China on 3 May 1941.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Holmesby & Main (2014), p.670.
* ↑ Deaths: O'Hara, The Argus, (Friday, 8 April 1921), p.1.
* ↑ The Medical Faculty: Representative Melbourne Medicos: No.35. Dr. Henry O'Hara, Table Talk, (Thursday, 25 August 1904), p.11.
* ↑ Death of Dr. O'Hara, The Argus, (Friday, 8 April 1921), p.6; Death of Dr. H.M. O'Hara, The Age, (Friday, 8 April 1921), p.7; Dr. O'Hara's Death: Brilliant Career Ends, The Herald, (Friday, 8 April 1921), p.7.
* ↑ Mitchell, A.M., "O'Hara, Henry Michael (1853–1921)", in G. Serle (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11: Nes-Smi, Melbourne University Press, (Carlton), 1988.
* ↑ Marriages: O'Hara—Klingender, The Argus, (Wednesday, 20 September 1876), p.1.
* ↑ Deaths: O'Hara, The Argus, (Monday, 15 October 1883), p.1.
* ↑ Births: O'Hara, The Age, (Friday, 10 January 1879), p.1.
* ↑ The Matriculation Lists, The Australasian, (Saturday, 8 June 1985), p.33.
* ↑ Melbourne University: Annual Examination—December, 1899: Second Year Medicine, The Australasian, (Saturday, 30 December 1899) p.36.
* ↑ Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, The Dublin Journal of Medical Science, Vol.121, No.409, (1 January 1906), p.70.
* ↑ Football, The Herald, (Friday, 11 May 1900), p.3.
* ↑ A Draw or a Win?, The Age, (Monday, 7 May 1900), p.6.
* ↑ The Prahran Telegraph, Saturday, 4 May 1901.
* ↑ Football: Coast v. Melbourne, The North West Post, (Thursday, 6 June 1907), p.3; Match v. N.W. Coast, The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times, (Friday, 7 June 1907), p.2.
* ↑ Personal Items, The Ballarat Star, (Monday, 15 January 1906), p.6.
* ↑ In other words, he acquired the "Triple Qualification" in 1903.
* ↑ The Gazette, The Mercury, (Wednesday, 6 June 1906), p.5.
* ↑ Dr. O'Hara's Departure: An Ulverstone Farewell, The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times, (Monday, 17 June 1907), p.4.
* ↑ Personal, The West Australian, (Tuesday, 30 July 1907), p.5.
* ↑ Perth Prattle, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 8 January 1911), p.26; Personal Pars., The Black Range Courier and Sandstone Observer, (Thursday, 9 February 1911), p.3.
* ↑ "Mr. Henry O'Hara will be away from Melbourne until the end of the year. During his absence Dr W.E. O'Hara will attend to the practice. Cromwell House, 8th October, 1913." Special Advertisements, The Herald, (Friday, 10 October 1913), p.6.
* ↑ About People, The Age, (Saturday, 9 March 1912), p.13.
* ↑ In Far Shanghai: Australians Pay Homage To Their War Dead, The (Sydney) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 26 April 1925), p.7.
* ↑ Melbourne Man Compensated, The Barrier Miner, (Wednesday, 10 July 1940), p,3.
* ↑ Deaths: O'Hara, The Age, (Tuesday, 6 May 1941), p.1.
* ↑ Died in Shanghai, The Argus, (Tuesday, 6 May 1941), p.5; Obituary: Late Dr. W. E. O'Hara, The (Burnie) Advocate, (Saturday, 10 May 1941), p.2.
