Owen Donaldson was the son of William Donaldson and of Mary Ann Donaldson (nee Ritchie) of Gonville, Wanganui.



Sergeant Donaldson was killed during a surprise attack by the Germans on 18 Regiment close to the Senio River one night. The description of the event appears in 18 Armoured Regiment History by W.D. Dawson:



'...about eleven o'clock [pm] when nearly everyone was fast asleep, occurred one of those startling events that hapen when you least expect them....without warning [the Germans] began to shell the whole New Zealand area with everything he possessed, from light mortars to great 210-millimetre earth-movers. There was a scatter as men evacuated bivvies and sought urgent shelter in houses or tanks or ditches. Those who had been cautious enough to dig slitties had the last laugh - though they did not feel like laughing for the next two hours. There was no sleep for anyone all that time, only a nightmare of noise and acrid smoke and hunks of metal flying through the vines. The damage was surprisingly small, but in Regimental Headquarters a truck and a Honey tank were badly bent, Sergeant Owen Donaldson was killed and four men wounded.' (p. 614)

Official History of 18 Battalion and Armoured Regiment by W.D. Dawson AWMM