Cecil Buckley

When the London Gazette published the initial list of Victoria Cross recipients on 24 February 1857, the entry heading the announcement belonged to Lieutenant Cecil William Buckley of the Royal Navy. While Mate Charles Davis Lucas of HMS Hecla had executed a heroic act at an earlier date during Baltic operations in 1854, Buckley held the distinction of being the first individual whose award was officially gazetted.

The events that brought Buckley to official notice took place during the spring of 1855 in the Sea of Azov. Allied naval commanders in the Crimean War sought to sever the lines of supply and communication supporting Russian forces defending the fortress of Sebastopol. Serving as junior lieutenant aboard the frigate HMS Miranda under Captain Edmund Moubray Lyons, Buckley participated in series of amphibious operations directed against Russian naval facilities, depots, and fortifications along the coast.

On 29 May 1855, following the bombardment of Genitchi, Allied officers identified extensive grain depots that supplied the Russian army in the field. Because these stores stood beyond the protective range of the fleet's naval guns, any shore party faced direct action without artillery support. Buckley volunteered to land alongside Lieutenant Hugh Talbot Burgoyne of HMS Swallow and Gunner John Robarts of HMS Ardent. Landing in the presence of superior enemy forces, the three men set fire to government supply buildings, corn stores, ammunition dumps, and seventy-three Russian vessels before retreating under fire, narrowly avoiding capture by Cossack cavalry.

Five days later, during the fleet's bombardment of Taganrog on 3 June 1855, Buckley volunteered for a second amphibious sabotage mission. Commanding a four-oared gig accompanied by Boatswain Henry Cooper and a crew of volunteers, he repeatedly landed along the waterfront under direct rifle and artillery fire. Operating against a garrison of upwards of three thousand Russian soldiers, the landing party set fire to government buildings, timber yards, and military stores, shielded only by covering fire from naval gunboats offshore.

Buckley had entered the Royal Navy in 1843, serving his early years as cadet and midshipman aboard HMS Tyne, HMS Amazon, and HMS Tweed, before appointment as mate aboard HMS Daedalus on the South American and Pacific stations. An early instance of commendation occurred in July 1850 during an attack on a river fort. Before his deployment to the Black Sea, he served in the Baltic aboard HMS Royal George in late 1853 and took part in the capture of Kola in Russian Lapland aboard HMS Miranda in 1854.

Promoted to commander in February 1856 in recognition of his war service, Buckley assumed command of the gunvessel HMS Snake in the Kertch Strait. His Victoria Cross investiture occurred in February 1858 aboard HMS Merlin, a six-gun steam vessel he commanded along the West Coast of Africa. Later appointments took him to the Cape of Good Hope station aboard HMS Forte and HMS Persian. Advancement to captain followed in April 1862, leading to command of the wooden screw corvette HMS Pylades on the Pacific station between 1868 and 1871. His final assignment came in December 1871 as commander of HMS Valiant, a guard ship stationed in the Shannon Estuary in Ireland.

Born on 7 October 1828 at Patricroft near Eccles, Lancashire, Buckley married Catharine Senhouse in August 1865, with whom he had three children. Failing health forced his retirement from active naval service in October 1872. He traveled to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he died on 7 December 1872 at the age of forty-four, and was buried in the British Cemetery of Funchal.

The official citation published in the London Gazette on 24 February 1857 reads as follows:

"Lord Lyons reports that–“Whilst serving as junior Lieutenant of the ‘Miranda,’ this Officer landed in presence of a superior force, and set fire to the Russian stores at Genitchi;” and “he also performed a similar desperate service at Taganrog.” The first service referred to occurred after the shelling of the town of Genitchi, on the 29th May, 1855. After mentioning that the stores were in a very favourable position for supplying the Russian Army, and that, therefore, their destruction was of the utmost importance, Captain Lyons writes: “Lieutenant Cecil W. Buckley, Lieutenant Hugh T. Burgoyne, and Mr. John Roberts, gunner, volunteered to land alone, and fire the stores, which offer I accepted, knowing the imminent risk there would be in landing a party in presence of such a superior force, and out of gun-shot of the ships. This very dangerous service they most gallantly performed, narrowly escaping the Cossacks, who all but cut them off from their boat.” (Despatch from Admiral Lord Lyons, 2nd June, 1855, No. 419.) The second volunteer service was performed while the town of Taganrog was being bombarded by the boats of the Fleet, and is thus recorded by Captain Lyons :–’Lieutenant Cecil Buckley, in a four-oared gig, accompanied by Mr. Henry Cooper, Boatswain, and manned by volunteers, repeatedly landed and fired the different stores and Government buildings. This dangerous, not to say desperate service (carried out in a town containing upwards of 3,000 troops, constantly endeavouring to prevent it, and only checked by the fire of the boats’ guns), was most effectually performed.’”