Shawn O'Leary, a graduate of the University of Queensland, was of Scottish descent. He became a journalist and later a farmer. O'Leary enlisted in the Australian Army on the 4 June 1940 and saw service in the Middle East, North Africa and the Pacific. He was discharged as a Lieutenant in the 6th Division Cavalry Regiment on the 10 January 1946. O'Leary became a grazier in north-western New South Wales, lived in Gympie and later moved to Alva Beach near Ayr, Queensland. He also wrote To the Green Fields Beyond : The Story of 6th Australian Division Cavalry Commandos (1975).
(Source: H. M. Green, A History of Australian Literature Pure and Applied Volume 2 1923-1950 (1961): 982)
