He was later elected a member of the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers union and was chairman of the Hillside branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and later its secretary.

[3] In 1928 he was a foundation member of the Otago Division of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve and was commissioned as an officer with the rank of Lieutenant.

[4] During World War II Connolly served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in both the Atlantic and Pacific, commanding the minesweeper ship HMS Deodar and antisubmarine vessel HMNZS Moa.

[12] Connolly received some respite as despite losing the mayoralty he was comfortably re-elected to the Otago Harbour Board and was appointed to the role of deputy-chairman.

As a result, Connolly together with Bill Anderton and Arnold Nordmeyer were called before Labour's National Executive and given warnings about the threat of divisiveness to the party.

Initially Connolly was set to be Labour's mayoral candidate in Dunedin for the 1962 local-body elections, but was forced to withdraw on grounds of ill-health.

Connolly was sure he would have won had he been able to stand, a feeling which was reinforced after his comparatively inexperienced replacement as Labour candidate, councillor Russell Calvert came very close to winning against the incumbent Stuart Sidey.