Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buckley, Cecil William
BUCKLEY, CECIL WILLIAM (1828–1872), captain in the royal navy, entered the navy in 1845. He served in the Miranda frigate, one of the squadron which, on the outbreak of the war with Russia, was sent to the White Sea. In the following winter the Miranda was sent to the Black Sea, and on 29 May 1855, Buckley, in company with Lieutenant Burgoyne and Mr. Roberts, a gunner, volunteered to land and fire a quantity of stores at Genitchi. ‘I accepted their offer,’ wrote Captain Lyons, of the Miranda, ‘knowing the imminent risk there would be in landing a party in presence of such a superior force, and out of gunshot of the ships. This very dangerous service they most gallantly performed, narrowly escaping the Cossacks, who all but cut them off from their boat.’ A few days later Buckley, accompanied by Mr. Cooper, the boatswain, again landed at Taganrog, and fired the stores and government buildings; ‘a dangerous, not to say desperate service,’ wrote Lord Lyons in a despatch dated 6 June 1855. In acknowledgment of these gallant services, Buckley was promoted to be commander on 27 Feb. 1856, and was decorated with the Victoria cross on the institution of that order. Buckley as commander served on the Cape station, and for some time in the Forte. He was advanced to be captain on 16 April 1862, and during the years 1868–70 commanded the Pylades on the Pacific station. In December 1871 he was appointed to the command of the Valiant, coastguard ship in the Shannon, from which failing health obliged him to retire in the following October. He died in Madeira in 1872. He was married and left issue, a son and a daughter.
[O'Byrne's Victoria Cross, 44; information communicated by the family.]