World War I Victoria Cross Recipient. A native of Ireland, he was gazetted for the award on November 12, 1918 for his actions as a private in the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, on September 20, 1918 near Crevecoeur, France during the Hundred Days Offensive near the end of World War I. Corn in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, he moved to Scotland with his family as an infant. As a young boy, he worked in the local coal mines. In 1897 he enlisted in the Royal Scots, British Army, and transferred to the Cameron Highlanders, British Army, serving in South Africa during the Second Boer War. Following the war, he emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand where he was employed as a cable splicer. Following the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was attached to the British Army Service Corps as a baker in the 1st Field Bakery and saw action at Gallipoli, Turkey, before being sent to the Western Front in France where he served as a warrant officer. In May 1918 he transferred to the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment with the reduced rank of private. On September 30, 1918 his unit was attempting to cross the Scheldt River under heavy enemy fire near Crevecoeur, France, where he won the Victoria Cross for gallantry. He was wounded and promoted to the rank of sergeant when the war ended. In September 1919 he was discharges and returned to Auckland to his previous employment. He died in Takapuna, New Zealand at the age of 82. His Victoria Cross citation reads: "For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when, although wounded in the foot, he continued with the advancing troops despite difficult canal and river obstacles. When his platoon was subsequently forced back by a counterattack he succeeded in carrying a message which involved swimming a river and crossing an area swept by machine-gun fire, subsequently rejoining his platoon. Later he undertook on his own initiative to save a bridge which had been mined, and, though under close fire of machine-guns and snipers, he succeeded in removing the charges, returning with the fuses and detonators. Though suffering from a painful wound he displayed the highest degree of valour and devotion to duty." In addition to the Victoria Cross, he received the Queen's South Africa Medal, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal (1914-20), the Victory Medal (1914-19), and the King George VI Coronation Medal (1937). His Victoria Cross and other medals are on display at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in Auckland.