John Patrick Buckley was born in Cork on 9 March 1914.He successfully completed his parachute training on 30 September 1946. Sergeant Buckley was posted to the Reserve Battalion at Piddlehinton. He served with 6th Airborne Divisional Signal Regiment in Palestine.

Sergeant Buckley was killed when his train was bombed near Rehoboth along with 27 other British soldiers. He is now buried in Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel.