Australian Victoria Cross Recipient
Sergeant Maurice Vincent Buckley (alias Gerald Sexton)
Unit
13th Battalion
Born
13 April 1891 at Hawthorn, Victoria
Date of action
18 September 1918
Place
Le Verguier, near St Quentin, France
Details
During an advance Buckley’s battalion set off behind a creeping barrage and cleared several enemy outposts, two of which fell to Buckley’s Lewis gun. When a field gun held up one company he rushed towards it, shot the crew and raced under machine-gun fire across open ground to put a trench mortar out of action. He then fired into an enemy dug-out and captured thirty Germans. By the end of the day he had rushed at least six machine-gun positions, captured a field gun and taken nearly 100 prisoners.
Died
27 January 1922 following a horse-riding accident
Buried or Commemorated
funeral with ten Victoria Cross recipients as pall-bearers
Current location of the VC
Australian War Memorial