Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Colonel R. E. Tucker, Devonshire Regiment

1914-15 Star (Col. R. E. Tucker. Devon. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Col. R. E. Tucker.); Coronation 1911 (Colonel R. E. Tucker. (National Reserve)); Volunteer Officers’ Decoration, V.R., silver and silver gilt, hallmarks for London 1901, with integral top riband bar, nearly extremely fine (5) £300-£400

Robert Edward Tucker was born in Ashburton, Devon, in 1863, the eldest son of Robert Coard Tucker, Esq., a county solicitor who commanded the 9th Devonshire Rifle Volunteers in the 1870s. Educated at Sheborne, Tucker followed in his father’s footsteps, and qualified as a solicitor, joining the family firm Tucker & Son in Ashburton. He also joined the local militia, and in 1905 was appointed to the command of the 5th Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, with the honorary rank of Colonel. He attended the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, being in attendance outside Buckingham Palace with the Territorial Contingent, before being placed on the retired list.

Following the outbreak of the Great War, Tucker, despite being over 50, re-joined his former unit in September 1914, and was appointed Second-in-Command of the newly-formed 2nd/5th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment. After a year of training and preparing for active service in England, Tucker sailed with the battalion for Egypt in the S.S. Ceramic, arriving at Cairo on 15 September 1915. After a short stay near Cairo, the battalion was sent south to carry out police duties in the desert areas where the Senussi tribes were in rebellion. Appointed to the command of the battalion the following spring, Tucker’s next appointment, following the disbandment of the battalion in June 1916, was on the Staff in Khartoum, before being seconded to the 16th Battalion, Essex Regiment, on the Western Front. Following the cessation of hostilities he reverted once more to the retired list.

Tucker married Miss Annie Lloyd Williams in 1892, and they had a son and a daughter (their son, Second Lieutenant Alan Robert Lloyd Tucker, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Western Front on 18 December 1914). He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Devon in 1913, and for many years served as Clerk to the Governors of Ashburton Grammar School; as Clerk to the Ashburton Urban District Council; and as a Trustee of various local charities. After the Great War he served as President of he local branch of the Royal British Legion. He died in Ashburton on 10 April 1944, and is buried in the local churchyard.

Sold with copied research, including a group photograph of the officers of the 5th Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, featuring the recipient.