b. 1875 Liverpool, Lancashire. d. 25/10/1919 Liverpool, Lancashire.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 08/11/1916 Bakarista, Archangel, Russia.
Maurice was one of nine children of Patrick and Margaret McMahon (nee Whiting). He was baptised in Liverpool on 12th December 1875. On 1st August 1900 he married Jemima Mary Mullins in the same church he was baptised in and they had two daughters. They were named Maria and Margarita. He died in 1919 aged just 43.
AM CITATION:
On the 8th November 1916 a series of fires and explosions occurred at Bakaritsa, Port of Archangel. After the merchant ships had been got away from the wharves, cries and moans were heard from the direction of a 100-ton floating crane moored between the S.S. ” Earl of Forfar” and the quay. The ” Earl of Forfar ” was on fire fore and aft, and it was obvious that any attempt to save life must be accompanied by the greatest risk, the ship having explosives on board and the quay abreast it burning furiously with intermittent explosions from small arm ammunition. Lieutenant-Commander MacMahon, without a moment’s hesitation, volunteered to carry out rescue work, although other rescue parties considered that they had already done all that was humanly possible. In order to reach the floating crane it was necessary to cross the ” Earl of Forfar.” the after part of which had blown up, whilst the forepart was on fire and the forecastle was a mass of smouldering debris. Hearing moans from under the debris of the forecastle, Lieutenant-Commander MacMahou, with the aid of the crew of a tug, cleared away the wreckage and discovered the mate, with one arm, one leg, and collar-bone fractured. This man was extricated and passed into the tug. Lieutenant-Commander MacMahon then proceeded on to the floating crane by means of a single plank and rescued from beneath the debris of the crane the carpenter of the ” Earl of Forfar ” and two Russian subjects, part ofthe crane’s crew.
BURIAL LOCATION: YEW TREE RC CEMETERY, LIVERPOOL, LANCASHIRE.
PLOT IIIA, GRAVE 14.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
