Lot Essay
M.B.E. London Gazette 1.1.1942.
M.C. London Gazette 16.12.1919 'In recognition of gallantry in escaping from captivity whilst Prisoners of War'.
Mention in Despatches London Gazette 10.7.1919.
Major Sidney Earl Buckley, M.B.E., M.C., was born on 6.12.1893 and was educated at Rugby and Queen's College, Oxford. A Farm Manager by profession, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Northamptons on the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 and joined the Intelligence Corps in France where he was shot down in a BE2c and taken prisoner on 30.11.1915 whilst acting as Observer to 2nd Lieutenant Ward of No. 16 Squadron. After ten days at Lille, Buckley was transported to a P.O.W. camp at Gutersloh, Germany, containing about a thousand French Officers and about one hundred English. 'The accommodation was excellent', Buckley afterwards reported, 'though I was greatly depressed by the low morale and pessimism of the British Officers'. In December 1915, he was moved to a camp at Furstenberg and here made his first escape attempt, walking out of the camp dressed as a Russian Orderly. He was recaptured almost immediately and sentenced to 14 days solitary confinement in Augustabad.
In April 1916 he was send to a Prussian 'Straf', reprisal camp, at Custrin, where he was one of only five British Officers, who according to Buckley, 'got on well with the French, Belgian, and Russian Officers, and, as is usual in 'Straf' camps, morale and camaraderie of the prisoners was exceedingly good. There were no suicides ...' Following a visit by the American Ambassador to Custrin, the British Officers were transferred back to Augustabad, and from there, on 19.10.1916, Buckley made his second attempt to escape having gained possession of map and compass. He was wheeled out by a Belgian Orderly in a barrow covered with leaves. He was caught the next morning and was next sent to Fort IX, a notorious Officers' 'Straf' camp at Ingoldstadt. But he remained defiant for on 11.5.1917 he was sent into the town of Ingolstadt for Court-Martial - 'I was sentenced to six and a half months on the charges of escaping from the arrest room, insulting the Fort Commandant, and being disobedient to the Fort Commandant ... I conducted my own defence, and I also, in German, read a speech to which they listened very attentively'.
Having successfully lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court in Nurnberg, Buckley with some satisfaction was permitted to resume 'normal' life at Fort IX, though this was becoming increasingly hazardous for anyone prepared to challenge German authority. Whilst waiting for his appeal to be heard, Buckley and Major A.J. Evans and four other British Officers suddenly received notice that they were to be returned to Custrin by train. Shortly after midnight on 21.5.1917, the six Officers were crammed in a corridor compartment with a guard. On Evans' signal, when the train seemed to be slowing down, the British Officers leapt to their feet and pulled their bundles of luggage from the overhead racks. In the confusion Evans piled out of the window, closely followed by Buckley. The whole caper, together with vignettes of Buckley in various camps, is vividly described by Evans in his escape classic The Escaping Club. Of the night of the successful break, he wrote, 'Three seconds later Buckley came flying out of the window, and seemed to take rather a heavy toss. The end of the train was not yet past me, and we knew there was a man with a rifle in the last carriage so when Buckley came running along the track calling out to me, I caught him and pulled him down into the ditch at the side. The train went by, and its tail lights vanished round a corner and apparently no one saw or heard us ... Under a convenient hedge we made a few changes which were necessary in our clothes, threw away our military caps, and got out our compasses and a very poor sketch map of Buckley's, which was to serve us as a guide for the next hundred kilometres and more, till we could use our proper maps'. Some 18 days later the two Officers, 'clad in filthy khaki' crossed the German-Swiss border north of Schaffhausen.
M.C. London Gazette 16.12.1919 'In recognition of gallantry in escaping from captivity whilst Prisoners of War'.
Mention in Despatches London Gazette 10.7.1919.
Major Sidney Earl Buckley, M.B.E., M.C., was born on 6.12.1893 and was educated at Rugby and Queen's College, Oxford. A Farm Manager by profession, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Northamptons on the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 and joined the Intelligence Corps in France where he was shot down in a BE2c and taken prisoner on 30.11.1915 whilst acting as Observer to 2nd Lieutenant Ward of No. 16 Squadron. After ten days at Lille, Buckley was transported to a P.O.W. camp at Gutersloh, Germany, containing about a thousand French Officers and about one hundred English. 'The accommodation was excellent', Buckley afterwards reported, 'though I was greatly depressed by the low morale and pessimism of the British Officers'. In December 1915, he was moved to a camp at Furstenberg and here made his first escape attempt, walking out of the camp dressed as a Russian Orderly. He was recaptured almost immediately and sentenced to 14 days solitary confinement in Augustabad.
In April 1916 he was send to a Prussian 'Straf', reprisal camp, at Custrin, where he was one of only five British Officers, who according to Buckley, 'got on well with the French, Belgian, and Russian Officers, and, as is usual in 'Straf' camps, morale and camaraderie of the prisoners was exceedingly good. There were no suicides ...' Following a visit by the American Ambassador to Custrin, the British Officers were transferred back to Augustabad, and from there, on 19.10.1916, Buckley made his second attempt to escape having gained possession of map and compass. He was wheeled out by a Belgian Orderly in a barrow covered with leaves. He was caught the next morning and was next sent to Fort IX, a notorious Officers' 'Straf' camp at Ingoldstadt. But he remained defiant for on 11.5.1917 he was sent into the town of Ingolstadt for Court-Martial - 'I was sentenced to six and a half months on the charges of escaping from the arrest room, insulting the Fort Commandant, and being disobedient to the Fort Commandant ... I conducted my own defence, and I also, in German, read a speech to which they listened very attentively'.
Having successfully lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court in Nurnberg, Buckley with some satisfaction was permitted to resume 'normal' life at Fort IX, though this was becoming increasingly hazardous for anyone prepared to challenge German authority. Whilst waiting for his appeal to be heard, Buckley and Major A.J. Evans and four other British Officers suddenly received notice that they were to be returned to Custrin by train. Shortly after midnight on 21.5.1917, the six Officers were crammed in a corridor compartment with a guard. On Evans' signal, when the train seemed to be slowing down, the British Officers leapt to their feet and pulled their bundles of luggage from the overhead racks. In the confusion Evans piled out of the window, closely followed by Buckley. The whole caper, together with vignettes of Buckley in various camps, is vividly described by Evans in his escape classic The Escaping Club. Of the night of the successful break, he wrote, 'Three seconds later Buckley came flying out of the window, and seemed to take rather a heavy toss. The end of the train was not yet past me, and we knew there was a man with a rifle in the last carriage so when Buckley came running along the track calling out to me, I caught him and pulled him down into the ditch at the side. The train went by, and its tail lights vanished round a corner and apparently no one saw or heard us ... Under a convenient hedge we made a few changes which were necessary in our clothes, threw away our military caps, and got out our compasses and a very poor sketch map of Buckley's, which was to serve us as a guide for the next hundred kilometres and more, till we could use our proper maps'. Some 18 days later the two Officers, 'clad in filthy khaki' crossed the German-Swiss border north of Schaffhausen.