John Egerton Ruck

Memorial: Filton - Community Centre

Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Queens South Africa Medal, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Major and Acting Lieutenant Colonel

Parents: Egerton Wynden and Margaret Bradshaw Ruck

Marital status: Married

Home address: Mayfield House, Sandy Lane, Cheam, Surrey

Pre-war occupation: Career soldier

Date of birth: 12/01/1874

Place of birth: Cheam, Surrey

Date of death: 08/08/1915

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site. Commemorated at Helles Memorial, Turkey, Filton Community Centre Memorial and Westbury-on-Trym Memorial

Age: 41

Further information:

John was born in Cheam Surrey, the son of a wine merchant and the eldest of two children. His sister Elsie was two years younger than him. John was educated at Marlborough College then Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1893. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1897 and served in the Boer War (1899-1900) when he was awarded the Queen's Medal. In 1903 he was promoted to Captain and in 1905 he married Eleanor Fanny Mitchell-Innes from Westbury-on-Trym, who was the daughter of a Major in the Rifles. John and Eleanor had two children Gordon and Patricia and Patricia was just three years old when her father died.
In 1915, six months before his death, John was promoted to the rank of Major and his battalion joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. They arrived in the Dardanelles on the 11th July 1915 where John was promoted to Acting Lieutenant Colonel and they fought in the Gallipoli Campaign. John was killed in action during the Landing at Suvla Bay (6–15 August 1915). This battle, against the Ottoman Empire, was a British failure as none of the objectives were achieved and the British advance was stopped after 800 meters. There were 21,500 resulting British casualties and John's body was never found. The Helles Memorial where he is remembered serves as Commonwealth battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and a place of commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/