Hugh Frederick Norman Tucker was born on 28 December, 1904, at Wandsworth, in Surrey, the youngest of three known children to Norman Tucker, a railway coach builder, and Harriett Ada Tucker (formerly Howland). He had two sisters: Gladys Irene (1900); and Dorothy Winifred Howland (1903).

In 1901, the family had lived at 18 Albion Road, in Arlesford Green, Willesborough, in Kent. The father died in 1908, and by 1911 the 41-year-old widowed mother was working as a domestic cook and housekeeper for John Carpenter-Garnier at Rookesbury Park in Wickham, Hampshire. The 6-year-old Hugh was then living at Mason Farm, in Castlemorton, Malvern, cared for as a nurse child by Mabel Foster Melliar.

Hugh first attended an elementary school at Fareham, in Hampshire, which he was requested to leave. His mother then went to live at 39 Danes Road, in Exeter, and he was admitted to Hele’s School in Exeter on 16 January, 1914, having been exempted from tuition fees by the St. John’s Hospital Orphanage. He remained at Hele’s until leaving on 14 December, 1917, aged 13.

In June, 1914, his mother remarried, to Robert Thomas Seeley, a carpenter. The family home then became ‘Woodhouse’, in Durnfield, Tintinhull, near Martock in Somersetshire.

Hugh Frederick Norman Tucker enlisted in the Army as a boy, joining the Royal Army Service Corps, with the number T/7987. At some point his number was changed to T/60077.

He was discharged on 4 September, 1920, medically unfit, suffering from lymphoedema (long-term (chronic) condition that causes swelling in the body’s tissues).

He died on 26 October, 1920, from meningitis, aged 15. Interestingly, one of his pension cards stated that his condition was non-attributable to his service, but was granted a 100% disability pension from 14 September, 1920.

Hugh Frederick Norman Tucker lies buried at Aldershot Civil Cemetery, with his grave marked by a CWGC headstone, which is additionally inscribed: LOVED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM.

His name has not been identified on any local war memorial.