2nd Lieutenant George Francis JUCKES
6th (Reserve) Battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) attached to C Company of the 1st Battalion

Date of birth: 19th July 1894
Date of death: 6th July 1915

Killed in action aged 20
Buried at Talana Farm Cemetery, Boezinge Plot I Row D Grave 9
He was born at 14 Carfax, Horsham in Sussex on the 19th of July 1894 the second son of Dr Frank Ambrose Juckes MD and Henrietta Mary (nee Darnell) later of Old Compton, Horsham. He was christened on the 2nd of September 1894.

He was educated at the King’s School Canterbury from March 1909 to July 1912 during which time he served as a Lance Corporal in the Officer Training Corps. He played for the Rugby XV in 1911/12 and for the Cricket XI in 1912. During the 1912 cricket season he scored 142 runs for the season at an average of 15.80. He was awarded his 1st XI Cricket Colours and his Sports Colours in 1912. He played tennis for the school and was runner up to R.J.N. Norris in the school singles finals of 1911.

Of his 1911/12 rugby season the Cantuarian wrote:-

"Useful forward and good out of touch. Kicks rather too hard."

Of his 1912 cricket season they wrote:-

" A very fair bat, but fond of putting his legs in front. Played two or three nice innings. A very fair field. Has bowled."

He passed the London Matriculation examination on the 10th of February 1912 and, on leaving school, he went to study at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Rosslyn Park, where he continued to play rugby for the hospital, for Blackheath and for Rosslyn Park Rugby Football Club. He also played cricket for St Bartholomew's. He went on to Pembroke College Cambridge.

Following the outbreak of war he applied for a commission in the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade (Special Reserve of Officers) on the 13th of August 1914 in an application which was supported by W. Girling-Ball, Warden of College, St Bartholomew's Hospital and by Algernon Latter, Headmaster of the King's School Canterbury.
On the same day he underwent a medical examination at Cambridge where it was recorded that he was six feet two inches tall and that he weighed 170lbs.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on probation in the 6th (Reserve) Battalion Rifle Brigade on the 15th of August 1914 and was posted to Sheppey for training. He embarked for France on the 1st of January 1915 where he was attached to C Company of the 1st Battalion. He was confirmed in his rank on the 27th of January 1915.

On the 6th of July the battalion took part in a large scale raid on the German trenches for which C and B Companies were to make the assault. Their objective that day was the occupation of the German trenches on the line of the Cinq Chemins Estaminet- Boesinghe Road, a distance from their start line of some fifty yards. At 5am the British Artillery commenced firing on the German front line and after a delay to check that the German wire had been cut the men of the Rifle Brigade went over the top at 6am and carried the German trenches at 6.11am. The German position was captured and consolidated. George Juckes was killed along with 2nd Lieutenant Patrick Charles Bentley Blair immediately before 6am by the explosion of a shell in the jumping off trench.

His father received the following telegram dated the 9th of July 1915: -

"Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lt. G.F. Juckes Rifle Brigade was killed in action July 7th (sic). Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy."

His younger brother, Lieutenant Thomas Roland Juckes (OKS), 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment was killed in action on the 9th of May 1915. His eldest brother Ralph (OKS) survived the war to become headmaster of Junior King’s from 1927 to 1931.

He is commemorated on his parent’s grave at St Michael’s Church at Bishops Cleeve, on the memorial at Bart’s Hospital Smithfield, on the Cheltenham Great War Roll of Honour and on the memorial at Rosslyn Park Rugby Football Club.
 

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