BORN HULL 24/11/1891. SON OF JOHN BUCK (1851-1917) AND MARTHA ALICE HARRISON (1851-1917), OF 176, ST GEORGES ROAD, HULL. SON OF A DOCK LABOURER. HE HAD THREE BROTHERS AND FIVE SISTERS.
HE WAS AN APPRENTICE JOINER AND MEMBER OF THE HULL & DISTRICT GARDENER SOCIETY.
HE MARRIED IN 1916. HIS WIFE MARY KITCHEN (1893-1971) AND DAUGHTER, JOAN, LIVED AT 4, BRUNSWICK AVENUE, HULL. HIS FATHER IN LAW, JOHN KITCHEN LIVED ST GEORGES ROAD IN THE SAME STREET AS HIS PARENTS.
HE ENLISTED IN HULL IN 1914. SERVED WITH THE HULL PALS, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. PROMOTED CORPORAL. KILLED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 25. COMMEMORATED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING. HE HAD BEEN MARRIED FOR LESS THAN A YEAR AND LEFT A WIDOW AND SMALL CHILD. HIS MOTHER HAD DIED IN MARCH 1917. HIS FATHER DIED IN MAY 1917.
HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON ST MATTHEWS CHURCH, ROLL OF HONOUR, BOULEVARD, HULL AND ON ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH MEMORIAL, NEWINGTON, HULL.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.
The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
