Michael John O ' Leary Major Michael John O ' Leary VC ( 29 September 1890 – 2 August 1961 ) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross , the most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . O ' Leary achieved his award for single - handedly charging and destroying two German barricades defended by machine gun positions near the French village of Cuinchy , in a localised operation on the Western Front during the First World War . At the time of his action , O ' Leary was a nine - year veteran of the British armed forces and by the time he retired from the British Army in 1921 , he had reached the rank of lieutenant . He served in the army again during the Second World War , although his later service was blighted by periods of ill - health . At his final retirement from the military in 1945 , O ' Leary was an Army major in command of a prisoner of war camp . Between the wars , O ' Leary spent many years employed as a police officer in Canada and is sometimes considered to be a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross . Following the Second World War he worked as a building contractor in London , where he died in 1961 . Early life . O ' Leary was born in 1890 , one of four children of Daniel and Margaret O ' Leary , who owned a farm at Inchigeela , near Macroom in County Cork , Ireland . Daniel O ' Leary was a fervent Irish nationalist and keen sportsman who participated in competitive weightlifting and football . Aged 16 and unwilling to continue to work on his parent ' s land , Michael O ' Leary joined the Royal Navy , serving at the shore establishment HMS " Vivid " at Devonport for several years until rheumatism in his knees forced his departure from the service . Within a few months however , O ' Leary had again tired of the farm and joined the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army . O ' Leary served three years with the Irish Guards , leaving in August 1913 to join the Royal Northwest Mounted Police ( RNWMP ) in Saskatchewan , Canada . Operating from Regina , Constable O ' Leary was soon commended for his bravery in capturing two criminals following a two - hour gunbattle , for which service he was presented with a gold ring . At the outbreak of the First World War in Europe during August 1914 , O ' Leary was given permission to leave the RNWMP and return to Britain in order to rejoin the army as an active reservist . On 22 October , O ' Leary was mobilized and on 23 November he joined his regiment in France , then fighting with the British Expeditionary Force , entrenched in Flanders . First World War service . During December 1914 , O ' Leary saw heavy fighting with the Irish Guards and was Mentioned in Despatches and subsequently promoted to Lance Corporal on 5 January 1915 . Three weeks later , on 30 January , the Irish Guards were ordered to prepare for an attack on German positions near Cuinchy on the La Bassée Canal , a response to a successful German operation in the area five days before . The Germans attacked first however , and on the morning of 1 February seized a stretch of canal embankment on the western end of the 2nd Brigade line from a company of Coldstream Guards . This section , known as the Hollow , was tactically important as it defended a culvert that passed underneath a railway embankment . 4 Company of Irish Guards , originally in reserve , were tasked with joining the Coldstream Guards in retaking the position at 04 : 00 , but the attack was met with heavy machine gun fire and most of the assault party , including all of the Irish Guards officers , were killed or wounded . To replace these officers , Second Lieutenant Innes of 1 Company was ordered forward to gather the survivors and withdraw , forming up at a barricade on the edge of the Hollow . Innes regrouped the survivors and , following a heavy bombardment from supporting artillery and with his own company providing covering fire , assisted the Coldstream Guards in a second attack at 10 : 15 . Weighed down with entrenching equipment , the attacking Coldstream Guardsmen faltered and began to suffer heavy casualties . Innes too came under heavy fire from a German barricade to their front equipped with a machine gun . Michael O ' Leary had been serving as Innes ' s orderly , and had joined him in the operations earlier in the morning and again in the second attack . Charging past the rest of the assault party , O ' Leary closed with the first German barricade at the top of the railway embankment and fired five shots , killing the gun ' s crew . Continuing forward , O ' Leary confronted a second barricade , also armed with a machine gun further on and again mounted the railway embankment , to avoid the marshy ground on either side . The Germans spotted his approach , but could not bring their gun to bear on him before he opened fire , killing three soldiers and capturing two others after he ran out of ammunition . Reportedly , O ' Leary had made his advance on the second barricade " intent upon killing another German to whom he had taken a dislike " . Having disabled both guns and enabled the recapture of the British position , O ' Leary then returned to his unit with his prisoners , apparently " as cool as if he had been for a walk in the park . " For his actions , O ' Leary received a battlefield promotion to sergeant on 4 February and was recommended for the Victoria Cross , which was gazetted on the 18 February : " Michael O ' Leary " song . In 1915 , Jack Judge recorded " Michael O ' Leary , V . C . " , a song about O ' Leary ' s role in the war effort . Later war service . Returning to Britain to receive his medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 22 June 1915 , O ' Leary was given a grand reception attended by thousands of Londoners in Hyde Park on 10 July . He was also the subject of much patriotic writing , including a poem in the Daily Mail and the short play " O ' Flaherty VC " by George Bernard Shaw . Tributes came from numerous prominent figures of the day , including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who said that " No writer in fiction would dare to fasten such an achievement on any of his characters , but the Irish have always had a reputation of being wonderful fighters , and Lance - Corporal Michael O ’ Leary is clearly one of them . " and Thomas Scanlan who said : " I heard early this week of the great achievements of the Irish Guards . All Ireland is proud of O ’ Leary . He fully deserves the high honour that has been conferred upon him . Ireland is grateful to him . " His reception was repeated in Macroom when he visited Ireland , with crowds turning out to applaud him . Daniel O ' Leary was interviewed in a local newspaper regarding his son ' s exploit but was reportedly unimpressed , commenting : " I am surprised he didn ' t do more . I often laid out twenty men myself with a stick coming from Macroom Fair , and it is a bad trial of Mick that he could kill only eight , and he having a rifle and bayonet . " O ' Leary was further rewarded for his service , being advanced to a commissioned rank as a second lieutenant with the Connaught Rangers , and he was also presented with a Russian decoration , the Cross of St . George ( third class ) . Despite his popularity with the crowds in London and Macroom , he was jeered by Ulster Volunteers at a recruitment drive in Ballaghaderrin during the autumn of 1915 . This treatment caused such a scandal that it was raised in the Houses of Parliament in December . In 1916 , O ' Leary travelled to Salonika with the 5th battalion of the Connaught Rangers to serve in the Balkans campaign , remaining in theatre until the end of the war , following which he was stationed in Dover with the 2nd battalion until demobilised in 1921 . During his service in the Balkans , O ' Leary contracted malaria , which was to have severe negative effects on his health for the rest of his life . He was in the same regiment as the British actor Stanley Holloway and both served together in France . After the war ended , they both remained close friends and Holloway often stayed in The May Fair where O ' Leary later worked as a concierge . Later life . Leaving his wife Greta and their two children in Britain , O ' Leary returned to Canada in March 1921 with the purported intention of rejoining the RNWMP , newly renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . For unknown reasons , this plan came to nothing and after some months giving lectures on his war service and working in a publishing house , O ' Leary joined the Ontario Provincial Police , charged with enforcing the prohibition laws . In 1924 , with his family recently arrived from England , O ' Leary left the Ontario police force and became a police sergeant with the Michigan Central Railway in Bridgeburg , Ontario , receiving £33 a month . In 1925 , O ' Leary was the subject of several scandals , being arrested for smuggling illegal immigrants and later for irregularities in his investigations . Although he was acquitted both times , he spent a week in prison following the second arrest and lost his job with the railway . Several months later , the municipal authorities in Hamilton , Ontario loaned him £70 to pay for him and his family to return to Ireland . Although his family sailed on the SS " Leticia " , O ' Leary remained in Ontario , working with the attorney general ' s office . With his health in serious decline , the British Legion arranged for O ' Leary to return to Britain and work in their poppy factory . By 1932 , O ' Leary was living in Southborne Avenue in Colindale , had regained his health and found employment as a commissionaire at The May Fair in London , at which he was involved in charitable events for wounded servicemen . With the mobilisation of the British Army in 1939 , O ' Leary returned to military service as a captain in the Middlesex Regiment . O ' Leary was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force but had returned to Britain before the Battle of France due to a recurrence of his malaria . No longer fit for full active service , O ' Leary was transferred to the Pioneer Corps and took command of a prisoner of war camp in Southern England . In 1945 , he was discharged from the military as unfit for duty on medical grounds as a major and found work as a building contractor , in which career he remained until his retirement in 1954 . Two of O ' Leary ' s sons had also served in the military during the war , with both receiving Distinguished Flying Cross es for their actions . As a Victoria Cross recipient , O ' Leary joined the VE day parade in 1946 , but at the 1956 Centenary VC review his place was taken by an imposter travelling in a bath chair . With his health again declining , O ' Leary moved to Limesdale Gardens in Edgware shortly before his death in 1961 at the Whittington Hospital in Islington . O ' Leary was buried at Mill Hill Cemetery following a funeral service at the Roman Catholic Annunciation Church in Burnt Oak which was attended by an honour guard from the Irish Guards and six of his children . His medals were later presented to the Irish Guards , and are on display at the Regimental Headquarters . He is also remembered in his birthplace , the " macroom - online " website listing him as a prominent citizen and states that " while many might consider he was fighting with the wrong army , in the wrong war , he was nevertheless a very brave , resourceful and capable soldieer who deserved the honours bestowed upon him . "