ADVENTUROUS LIFE

Evening Post, Volume cxxiv, Issue 148, 20 December 1937, Page 18

ADVENTUROUS LIFE

LIEUT.-COL. BUCKLEY

SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN

Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander Maclean Buckley, C.8.E., D.5.0., who died suddenly in London on November 10 at the age of 71, was a man of remarkable personality and courage, says "The Times." He served with distinction throughout the war, and was a great yachtsman, horseman, and swimmer. He went with Shackleton in the Nimrod in 1908 as far as the Antarctic circle. A correspondent writes of him:

He was born on October 25,1866, in New Zealand, and was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, New Zealand, and at Cheltenham College. In 1890 he married Mabel Gertrude Warren, who died in 1929, and they had three children. He entered the Army in 1885, serving first in the East Lancashire Regiment arid then in India with the Hampshire Regiment. After his marriage he went back to New Zealand, where he inherited estates from his uncle, John Maclean, and served in the New Zealand Defence Force until 1900. With his magnificent physique and soldierly bearing, he made his presence felt in any gathering by the sheer magnetism of his personality. His life was coloured by his love "of adventure. He had indomitable courage, great generosity, ( and the gift of making friends with people of every nation, class, and age.

Colonel Maclean Buckley was well known as a swimmer, horseman, and yachtsman. As a swimmer he.was unbeaten, and his skill as a rider and his

knowledge of horses were outstanding. He won many prizes in races and competitions of every kind. In the early part of the century he used often to drive a coach and four from London to Oxford, and he loved to tell of the occasion on which he was tipped five pounds by an American tourist, who took him for a coachman. JUMPING BARE WIRE. When the Jate King George V and Queen Mary visited New Zealand as Prince and Princess of Wales he gave an exhibition of jumping over bare wire with his volunteer corps. He was one of the first half-dozen yachtsmen in the country. He took his master mariner's ticket in 1904 and was accustomed to handle every type of By yachtsmen he will best be remembered as the builder and owner of the! three Mollihawks. He was especially j fond of Scandinavian waters, and after the war he sailed these single-handed for many years in his 30-ton ketch Truant, until he was over sixty.

In New Zealand he instituted a system whereby the men on his station — shepherds and labourers—all had a share in the profits earned by the farming and stock-breeding, an arrangement which proved highly successful. He raised a corps of rough riders from among his own men, which formed part of the New Zealand Defence Force; in addition, he had his own pack of hounds, his own polo team, and his own shooting eight.

He took part in an expedition to a hitherto unexplored part of Patagonia in 1897. This adventure nearly cost him his life, for he came alone upon a stretch of country in which there was no game, and was on the point of starvation.

In 1908 he was with Commander Wild in ■■ charge of the ponies on

Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic. Shackleton himself wrote in his book, The Heart of the Antarctic":—

"It was in this uncomfortable place (a cabin on board the Nimrod in Lyttelton Harbour) that the spirit of romance, the desire for the wind-1 whitened southern seas, and the still whiter wastes of the silent Antarctic grew stronger in the heart of George Buckley, as he sat there talking over the days and doings before us, longing for a share in the work, even though he might only go as far as the Antarctic circle. He knew that time would not permit him to do more than this. Suddenly he jumped up, came to me, and asked if I would take him as far as the ice. I was only too glad to consent, for his interest in the expedition showed that his heart was in our venture, and his personality had already appealed to us all. It was 2 p.m. when the decision was made, and the Nimrod was to sail at 4 p.m. BACK TO CHRISTCHUKCH. "He managed to catch a train to Christchurch, dashed into his club, gave his power of attorney to a friend, slung his toothbrush and some underclothing into a bag; struggled through one seething crowd at Christchurch station and another at the wharf, and arrived on board the Nimrod a few minutes before sailing time, equipped for the most rigorous weather in the world with only the summer suit he was wearing; surely a record in the way of joining a Polar expedition."

Again: "The meeting with the pack ice was to terminate the Koonya's tow, and that also meant our parting with Buckley, who had endeared himself to every man on board, from able seaman upwards, and had been of the greatest assistance to us in the matter of the ponies."

When war was declared in 1914 h3 rejoined his old regiment, the Hampshires,' being gazetted to the" 12th Battalion, but was soon transferred to command the 7th Battalion of the Leinsters. 47th Brigade and 16th (Irish) TJivi-sion. He w.as an extraordinarily fine commanding officer. Father Rafter, the padre of the regiment, wrote of him: "He is the best friend I have had out here, and though I have met many fine men, he is absolutely the best man and the best soldier I have come across." He received the D.S.O. in 1916 for services at Guillemont, the award in the "Gazette" stating that "he led his battalion with the greatest courage and determination. He has on many previous occasions done very fine work." He was made a C.B.E. in 1919.

After the war his life was dominated by a desire for lasting peace, and he worked continuously for this ideal. However, he never let the active side of his life drop, and it is typical of the man that in his last —seventy-first— year he drove his own car through Finland to the Arctic Circle and later through the Balkans. Fourteen days after coming back from Constantinople he was on the eve of a fresh expedition when he died.