Casualty Information

Died saving comrade under fire

We were contacted via Facebook by Chalky White, whose father was Lance Corporal Noel White.

He had a couple of photos of his Dad with his mates and wanted to confirm if one of them was Private Mark Tucker.

Chalky said, "Dad was a Bren gunner and they came under fire and were pinned. My Dad got himself into a bit of trouble so Tucker ran to help him, he was killed pulling my Dad to cover. My Dad never got over that, ever". Since his Dad's passing, Chalky has made it his mission to find out more about Mark Tucker.

He found the exact place where he was killed in Elbergen, Germany.

He found the entry in the 1st KOSB War Diary for the 6th April 1945 that gave details of a patrol that came under fire. "A carrier patrol went down the line of the canal towards the railway bridge but were finally stopped by MG and Mortar fire from the farm at 715344".

He also contacted a local newspaper in Liverpool to see if they would be interested in the story, or had any further information on Mark - but drew a blank.

*Coincidentally, the photos that Chalky sent through were also given to us by veteran Joe Hunt, on a CD he sent a couple of years ago. We are looking to see if we can find a connection to Noel and Joe.

Richard at 1st KOSB in Normandy looked online for more clues to Mark's service but couldn't find anything new. So, as ever, we called in the 'big guns' and asked Jenny if she would be kind enough to shine a light on this.

In record time, she came back with a newspaper clipping - with photo - that, we believe, confirms Mark Tucker is in both of the group photos we had in our Gallery.

This meant we were able to pass this on to Chalky and update both of the group photos in the gallery.

We believe Mark had a younger brother who died in childbirth. RESEARCHING

Private Mark Tucker is buried in the Sage War Cemetery in Großenkneten, Landkreis Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. His grave photo is here > https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18427612/mark-tucker