BORN BLACKPOOL 1881. SON OF MICHAEL & LATE MARIA BUCK, BLACKPOOL, LANCS. LIVED & ENLISTED HULL 1914. HDM 19/07/1916. ASSISTANT DRAPER AT MESSRS CROFT LTD. A WELL KNOWN SPORTSMAN WHO PLAYED FOR BLADON’S FOOTBALL TEAM. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 26/06/1916, AGED 35. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 13TH JULY 1916 WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
Hull Pal Memorials write: Born in 1881, George was the third of four sons to Michael and Maria Buck. The couple had married in Weeton, Lancashire on 11th January 1877 and made a home at 18 Buchanon Street, Blackpool. Michael worked as a Master Corn Miller and had two men in his employ. Their eldest son, John, aged just 14, before Maria herself died in 1896 at the tender age of 39. Their third son, George, was 34 years old when he volunteered to fight for his King and Country. He was resident in Hull when war broke out, living in a lodging house and making a living as a Draper. George enlisted at Hull City Hall joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals. After training throughout 1915 and a stint in Egypt over Christmas, the battalion left Port Said bound for Marseilles on February 29th 1916 then travelled north to Abbeville by train and from there to their grim new reality- the trenches of the Western Front.
George Walter Buck was holding the front line opposite what remained of the French village of Serre when he was blown to bits by a shrapnel shell on 27th June 1916. He is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery.
