Michael Joseph Munnelly

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Michael Joseph Munnelly (1941–24 December 1964) was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his gallantry on 24 December 1964 in Regents Park, London.

[edit] George Cross

Born in 1941, Munnelly was a journalist for The People newspaper.^[1]

He was at home in the third floor flat he shared with his brother and a friend when a group of fourteen youths arrived in the street to attend a party in one of the second floor flats. They had already been drinking heavily and so were not admitted to the party. There was a dairy across the road, and the youths broke into this and started throwing empty milk bottles at the flats. Several bystanders did nothing to intervene, the owner of the dairy attempted to stop the youths, but was kicked and stabbed. Munnelly and his brother and friend had heard the noise of breaking glass, and seeing what had happened to the dairy owner, decided they had to intervene. They went out into the street and managed to detain two of the youths, but Munelly was attacked by others of them and had to release one of them. At this point, the van which had originally brought the youths reappeared, but drove round the corner into another street. Munnelly's friend followed the van, and banged on the side of it to get it to stop. Once it had done so, he managed to reach in through a window, and grab one of the occupants. He was then set upon by some of the others in the van. Munnelly went to rescue him, but was himself attacked, first being kicked, and then knifed. The friend managed to escape, but Munnelly's wound proved fatal. Notice of his award appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette of 25 June 1965 (dated 29 June 1965).^[2]