John Henry Tucker was born in around 1884, apparently at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, the son of John Henry and Violet Tucker. Despite exhaustive searches his record of birth has not been found, nor his parents or family in any census. The first census in which he has been found is 1911, when he was lodging at 555 Neath Road, in Moriston, Swansea, Glamorganshire. He was then unmarried and employed as a fireman in a tin plate works. He was living with the Jago family, the eldest daughter of which, Ellen Elizabeth, was a tin plate worker. John Henry Tucker was to marry Ellen Elizabeth Jago a few months later. They were to have one daughter, Bessie Violet (1912), who died the year following her birth. They were to live at 3 Dyfatty Street, in Swansea, and his widow re-married in 1919 becoming Ellen Elizabeth Taylor.

At some point John Henry Tucker joined the Mercantile Marine. By 1917 he was a 2nd mate serving aboard the cargo ship, SS Algarve (1,274 tons). On 20 October, 1917, the ship was en route from Rouen to Swansea, in ballast, when she was torpedoed without warning, 15 miles south-west of Portland Bill, in Dorsetshire, by the German submarine UB-38. Twenty-one of the crew were lost in the attack, including John Henry Tucker. He was aged 33.

Having no known grave John Henry Tucker is commemorated on the Tower Hill memorial in London. His name has not been identified on any local war memorial.

John Henry Tucker's service earned him the British War Medal, 1914-20; and Mercantile Marine War Medal, 1914-18.