Daniel O'Connor was born in 1896, the second son of Daniel and Jane Auckland O'Connor of Te Kowhai, and before the war worked as a farmer. He embarked from Wellington on 11 October 1916, aboard the Tofua bound for Plymouth, a member of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade 12th Reinforcements, 1st Battalion, E Company. He wears the cap and collar badges denoting the NZEF 18th Reinforcements, as his unit embarked as part of this larger body. Returning to New Zealand after the war, Daniel O'Connor married Hazel May Kirk in 1928. He died at Matamata in 1977, aged 81. His wife Hazel died in 1997, at the age of 95, also at Matamata.