Recognising that his ambitions went beyond mill work, Buckley left home at Christmas 1831 to travel to Manchester, where he enlisted at the Recruiting Office into the Bengal Artillery.

He was promoted Corporal on 31 August 1840, Sergeant on 1 September 1853, and being able to speak several Indian dialects he gained a position with the Bengal Veterans' Establishment as a Sub-Conductor on 21 April 1854.

He was appointed Staff Conductor on 26 May 1856, and in 1857 he took his wife and three surviving children to Delhi, where he became Assistant Commissary of Ordnance and was employed at the Great Magazine, a storehouse for guns and ammunition.

Buckley retired as a Major on 1 October 1861, returned to England and lived for many years with his final wife, Sara, at 213 East India Dock Road, Poplar until his death on 14 July 1876, aged 63.

Living in relative "poverty and obscurity" at the time of his death, he was buried in an unmarked grave at the nearby Tower Hamlets Cemetery.

[2] Buckley has no direct descendants but a great-niece survived until 1955, at which time his VC was purchased by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps for £11,000.

[3] Buckley Barracks, home of 9 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps (formed from the amalgamation of the RAOC/RCT) at Hullavington, Wiltshire is named for him.

[2] The grave was marked with a headstone in a ceremony on 14 July 2014, which was attended by Jim Fitzpatrick MP, soldiers from 9 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, and the Victoria Cross Trust.