Charles Frederick Tucker was born on 3 June, 1879, at Rotherhithe in Surrey, the eldest of three known children of Charles Frederick Tucker, a lighterman and waterman, and Emma Tucker (formerly Taylor). He was baptised on 19 March, 1882, at St, Mary's Church, in Rotherhithe, when the family lived at 16 Swan Lane. The family had lived at the same address in 1881, but ten years later were living at 20 Swan Lane. He had one sister and one brother: Florence Emma (1883); and Ernest John (1885).

By 1901 the father had died and the widowed mother, and her three children, were living at 25 Hadland Street in Rotherhithe. The 20-year-old Charles Frederick was employed as a lithograph printer.

Charles Frederick Tucker married Emily Jane Stone on 18 June, 1904, at St. Paul's Church, in Greenwich, Kent. Charles was then employed as a printer and lived at 25 Ashburnham Road, in Greenwich.

By 1911 they were living at 12 Kempslade Street in Deptford, with Charles employed as a press hand with the Lithograph and General Printers. They were to have two sons: Frederick Charles (1908); and Stanley Robert (1911).

By 1917 his widow and sons were living at 141 Alverton Street, in Deptford, but later moved to Dorsetshire, where they lived at 142 Fortunes Well in Portland.

Charles Frederick Tucker's service record has not survived, and what is known has been extrapolated from other sources.

He initially enlisted at Deptford, in Kent, as a private, no. TR/13/18146, and posted to the 20th Training Battalion. After training he was posted to the Rifle Brigade, as a rifleman, no. S/22690.

He was then transferred to the King's Royal Rifle Corps, as a rifleman, no. R/34197, to join the 17th (Service) Battalion (British Empire League). The battalion had been raised in London by the British Empire League in April, 1915, and became part of 117th Brigade in the 39th Division and landed at Havre, in France, in March, 1916. It is quite possible that Charles Tucker was with the battalion when it first landed in France, or he could have been in a draft of reinforcements during 1916.

In April, 1916, the battalion moved to Bethune, and served in the trenches at Givenchy and Festubert.

In August, 1916, it moved to the Somme, and in September it was engaged in operations on the Ancre on 3 September, where it suffered 11 officers and 204 other ranks casualties, about one third of the strength it went into battle with.

On 4 September the battalion was at Auchonvillers, where it received a draft of 102 reinforcements, and on 14 September, when it was in support at Mailly-Maillet it received a further 205 reinforcements. Private Charles Tucker could well have joined the battalion in one of those drafts.

The battalion fought at the Schwaben Redoubt in October, 1916, on a number of occasions and received a draft of 58 reinforcements.

In November it was in reserve during the battle of Ancre.

On 13 December it took up reserve positions in the Ypres Salient, with two companies on the Canal Bank and the remainder at Chateau des Trois Tours. It there received a draft of 150 reinforcements, but complained that 130 were only partially trained, and had to complete their training under battalion arrangements.

Was Charles Frederick Tucker one of those men? We will probably never know.

The battalion began doing tours of duty in the front line in the Canal Sector, and later at Potijze, suffering a steady drain of casualties. Between 1-4 February, 1917, the battalion was holding the right sub-section of the front line at Potijze, and on the night of 4 February moved to the right reserve of Railway Wood, accommodated in the ecole and billets on the Menin Road. The casualties had been 6 wounded.

The battalion war diary noted little in the way of other ranks casualties, but, either at the end of January or in the first few days of February, 1917, Private Charles Tucker became ill and was evacuated to the 134th Field Ambulance, at Brandkoek, in Belgium. He died there on 5 February, 1917, having fallen into a diabetic coma. He was aged 36.

Charles Frederick Tucker lies buried in Brandhoek Military Cemetery, in Belgium, with his grave harked by a CWGC headstone, which is additionally inscribed: 'IN LOVING MEMORY / FROM ALL AT HOME / GOD BE WITH YOU / TILL WE MEET AGAIN.'

He was also commemorated on St. Luke's Church war memorial, in Evelyn Street, Deptford, which is now missing. He is however, also commemorated on the Portland war memorial, in Dorsetshire.

Charles Frederick Tucker's service earned him the British War Medal, 1914-20; and Victory Medal, 1914-19.