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And here is Jack with the rest of the brigade at Canterbury, prior to departure for the ME in March 1917.  I have had to compress to meet size restrictions, but would be glad to let you have a full size version if you PM me. 

Kevin

I am very grateful for your comprehensive replies.  I had been pondering the award of medals for service later in WW1 for some time, so am grateful for having this so clearly explained by Philip.

And thank you to Shaun J and Max D for the guidance on Jack's deployment and the likely place where he received the gun shot wounds to his head. 

Jack was evacuated on the Hospital Ship St David and then nursed back to health at the Northern General Hospital in Leicester by a lady known to the family as Miss Petrie.  She fell in love with him, but Jack was already married, with six children born before the war, and six or seven more after, including my mother in 1929.  Miss Petrie, a wealthy woman - whose family recently confirmed the story - stayed in touch and helped Jack's oldest boys and daughter find work in the 1920s.  The full story is recorded in the East of London's FHS' Cockney Ancestor #148.

Jack went back to war in 1917 in the Middle East and then to France, disembarking in Marseilles on 11 May 1918.  He returned to the Western Front in September 1918, before being discharged at Shorncliffe, Folkestone in January 1919.  He never regained full health; pieces of shrapnel continued to emerge from the side of his head for the rest of his days, but was turned down for a pension. 

Jack passed away on 1 January 1953, after falling ill during the Great Smog, sadly two years before I was born.

Thanks again

Kevin, now in Chester!

Very nice colouring, Dr Dude.  Thank you.

I'll aim to put the story of this fantastic research by many Rootschat members together for Cockney Ancestor, the magazine of the East of London Family History Society.

Kevin, now in Chester

A group in Chester plans to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the passing of Margery Annie Tucker, a member of the Women's Royal Air Force, who was killed on 31 August 1918.  Margery lost her life on her way to nearby RFC Shotwick (RAF Sealand), where she was engaged as a Driver on "war work".   Margery, who was unmarried, was the first woman to be buried with military honours in the city, and is commemorated by a CWGC headstone on a high point in the cemetery overlooking the River Dee.
We would be delighted to hear from family members, most likely descendants of her brother, the Rev Basil Roberts Tucker, who served in Liverpool, Chester, villages near Bridgwater (Somerset), before retiring  to East Wittering (Sussex) where he died in 1963.  Please PM me if you know of, or better still, are a member of the family.