FAMOUS V.C.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 5

FAMOUS V.C.

NOW A COMMISSIONAIRE MICHAEL O’LEARY’S CAREER. Michael O’Leary, one of the most famous V.C.’s of the war, is now acting as commissionaire at the front door of a well-known London West End hotel. All day he stands calling : “Taxi, sir” or “Your umbrella, madam.” With unfailing cheerfulness and gallantry he hands society beauties and dowager duchesses out of their cars. They all know and like O’Leary. Many of the hotel’s patrons, men in particular, make a point of stopping to have a word with him. Now a grizzled veteran, with a pronounced brogue and real Irish twinkle in his eye, he'smiled broadly when asked about his job recently. “A man might go a long way and fare far worse,” he said. “At first I admit I did find the job a little difficult. But people were very kind. They all helped to make things easy for me.”

It was in 1915 that Michael O’Leary, then a lance-corporal in the Connaught Rangers, captured two German positions, killed eight Germans and took two prisoners single-handed. His life has been crammed full of varied interest.

He first joined the Navy, then transferred to the Irish Guards, in which his time expired in 1913. Still thirsting for experience, he enlisted in the Canadian North-West Mounted Police. Then came the war.

After a triumphal return to his native Ireland, following the deed that won the V.C., he was granted a commission and rose to the rank of captain. In 1920 he rejoined the “Mounties.” But life, even for a V.C., can be very hard. There followed a period of unemployment. For months he was out of work. When the offer of this job as hotel commissionaire came along he snapped it up. “The old days.” he said. “Oh, well, I suppose it’s only natural, a man can’t help thinking of them. But that’s all past and done with now.”