A Collection of Medals for The Battle of Elandslaagte, 21 October 1899

A Great War C.B.E. group of eight awarded to the Rev. Canon J. G. W. Tuckey, late Chaplain 1st Class to the Forces and Honorary Chaplain to the King

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Cape Colony, Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Laing’s Nek, Belfast (Rev., C. to F.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Rev., C. to F.); 1914 Star, with clasp (Rev., A.C.D.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Rev.); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, together with a set of related dress miniature medals, the first with slightly chipped enamel work, the Boer War awards with officially re-impressed naming, the 1914 Star gilded, contact marks and edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine (16) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for The Battle of Elandslaagte, 21 October 1899.

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C.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Mention in despatches London Gazette 16 April 1901 (South Africa); 19 October 1914; 22 June 1915 and 1 January 1916.

James Grove White Tuckey was born in June 1864, the second son of Dr. Charles Caulfeild Tuckey, and was educated at King’s School, Canterbury and Trinity College, Oxford, and later studied at Heidelberg. A lecturer at Durham University from 1893 to 1895, he was ordained in the same period and appointed Chaplain of University College and of St. Margaret’s, Durham.

In 1895, however, he became a Chaplain to the Forces, serving first at Aldershot and then at York, whence he was embarked for South Africa on the outbreak of hostilities in October 1899. Subsequently one of just five Chaplains present at Elandslaagte, Lombard’s Kop and the defence of Ladysmith, and afterwards in the actions at Laing’s Nek, Belfast and Lydenburg, he was advanced to Chaplain 3rd Class and mentioned in despatches. Then from 1902-04 he did duty at Middleberg in the Transvaal, before coming home to an appointment at Caterham. Senior Chaplain at Woolwich Garrison by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he quickly went out to France as Senior Chaplain, 4th Division, shortly thereafter transferring to III Corps and thence to the 2nd Army in 1915. Appointed Assistant Chaplain-General, Rouen Area, in 1916, later in the year he returned home to Southern Command, in which capacity he was still employed at the War’s end. He was thrice mentioned in despatches, awarded the C.B.E. and appointed Honorary Chaplain to the King.

Having then been placed on the Retired List as a Chaplain 1st Class in 1923, Tuckey briefly served as Honorary Chaplain to the Bishop of Salisbury before being appointed Church of England Representative on the Interdenomination Advisory Committee at the War Office in 1935. He had, meanwhile, also been appointed Canon Residentiary of Ripon, in which capacity he remained employed until 1945. He died in October 1947, leaving a daughter, his wife having pre-deceased him and his only son John having been killed in action on the Somme as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment in August 1916.