Sergeant Michael O'Leary

Regiment: Irish Guards
Date published: 14/05/1914
Killed in action: No
Information: No biography in original publication. The following is from the Irish Times: On February 1st, 1915, the Irish Guards were attacking a stretch of the La Bassée canal in northern France. Lance Corp Michael O’Leary (24), a former policeman from Macroom, Co Cork, ran forward in front of his men, mounted a railway embankment and shot five members of a German machine-gun crew. O’Leary then attacked another machine-gun crew 60 yards farther on, killing three more Germans and capturing two. His comrades looked on in amazement. One said that “O’Leary came back from the killing as cool as if he had been for a walk in the park”.