Awards & Winners

Michael John O'Leary

Date of Birth 29-September-1890
Place of Birth Macroom
(Ireland, County Cork)
Nationality United Kingdom
Profession Soldier
Major Michael John O'Leary VC 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.

Awards by Michael John O'Leary

Check all the awards nominated and won by Michael John O'Leary.

1915


Victoria Cross
(In recognition of most conspicuous bravery that took place on 1 February, 1915 as Lance Corporal of the Irish Guards during the First World War.)