Victor Frank Stuckey

003859 Stuckey

Sapper Victor Stuckey

2nd Field Company Engineers, AIF

Service Number: 10944

 

 

 

 

 

Born: 1 Mar 1898, Camden, NSW

Died: 10 April 1917, Beugny, France

Victor Stuckey was born on 1 May 1898 at Camden to Albert and Amy Stuckey. The family moved to Penrith in about 1909 where Albert Stuckey established his boot repair business. They lived in Warwick Street Penrith. Stuckey attended Penrith Superior Public School and after leaving school he worked briefly at Penrith Post Office. In 1913, Stuckey found a position as a warehouseman with J and N Phillips and Co in Sydney. Stuckey’s brother Lorrie, who served with the 30th Battalion, enlisted in October 1916 and returned to Australia at the end of the war.

Stuckey enlisted on 6 April, 1916 and was allocated to the 9th Field Company Engineers. Prior to his embarkation on the HMAT Ajana on 5 July, 1916, he was made the recipient of several presentations. The firm of J and N Phillips gave him a luminous wristlet watch and he received a Brownie camera, money belt, fountain pen, etc from his friends. On 28 April 1917 the Nepean Times published a poem Stuckey had written on his voyage to England –

Though leagues of sea divide us;
And your face I cannot see;
Yet always please remember
There is one who thinks of thee

Stuckey arrived at Plymouth, England on 31 August, and wrote of his impressions of England, and especially of London. After several months training in England he was sent with other Australian units on 8 February 1917 overseas to Etaples missing his brother’s arrival by a few days. Stuckey was taken on strength with the 2nd Field Company Engineers on 21 February. In one of the last letters he wrote home, Stuckey mentioned having met other local men including Sergeant Fred Earp and Corporal Reg McLean. On 10 April he was killed instantly by a shell while walking to his digs at Beugny and was buried the following day near the dressing station. An oak cross was placed on his grave. News of his death was conveyed to his bereaved parents and family by Reverend Tarn. In March 1918, Albert Stuckey wrote to the military authorities regarding his ‘Dear Lad’ and of his disappointment that his son’s watch and personal belongings taken from his body had disappeared and other belongings sent to him had been ‘eaten to peaces by rats or mice’. Albert Stuckey died in 1923. In October 1917, Albert’s nephew named his son Victor Stuckey. He was killed over Germany in a bombing raid in 1944.

Memorial Details:

  • Bancourt British Cemetery, Bapaume, France
  • Honor Roll, Memory Park, Penrith
  • Honor Roll, Methodist Church, Penrith
  • Honor Roll, Penrith Superior Public School

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