b. c. 1899 Labwa, Uganda. d. 1980 Patongo, Uganda.
DATE AND PLACE OF GC ACTION: 02/1934 and 10/1934 Uganda.
Edwardo Omara (1910-1980) was born in Labwa, Agago County, Uganda in 1899, with his father’s name was Ilukur Oryango Piramoi, and he had three sisters. He belonged to the Auu Abaru clan in the Acholi area. He didn’t receive any formal education. It is known that he married four times as was tribal custom, and had ten children in total. Edwardo worked as a game scout in the Chua District of the Northern Province of Uganda when he was involved in two separate incidents within eight months in 1934.
Edwardo Omara GC
In February 1934, another game scout, who was anxious to punish a herd of marauding elephants, wounded two, but then one of them charged and pinned him to the ground. Omara pulled out the scout’s rifle from between the elephant’s feet, but was unable to reload it so he attacked the elephant with his spear. He drove it off and eventually killed it, and then carried the scout for 3 hours to Adilang, but the scout died from his injuries. On a second occasion in October 1934, when an elephant which had been burnt in a bush fire and was consequently in a most dangerous temper, took possession of a village waterhole and terrorised the locals. Omara, at great personal risk and in the interests of his fellow villagers killed it with a heavy hunting spear.
Omara was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, which was later exchanged for the new George Cross in 1940. Little more is known about Edwardo’s life except for that in 1954 when the Queen came to Uganda he led the group to meet her during the opening of Owen Falls Dam in Jinja, and that he attended the 1968 VC and GC Association Reunion with his son, John Baptista Edward Awil. Edwardo died in 1980 in Patongo, Uganda and is believed to be buried in the village. His GC, 1953 QEII Coronation Medal and 1977 QEII Silver Jubilee Medal are privately held.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD.
BURIAL PLACE: BURIED IN PATONGO, UGANDA.
