Dudley Gilman Tucker was born in New York City, April 7, 1887. His parents were Gilman Henry Tucker, secretary of the American Book Company and Caroline Low (Kimball) Tucker.De Wolfe Howe, 1922 He was a descendant of Massachusetts colonial era governor

Thomas Dudley Thomas Dudley (12 October 157631 July 1653) was a New England colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the tow ...

.US War memorial - Dudley Gilman Tucker
- Retrieved July 11, 2013.

Biography

Tucker graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1907 and attended Columbia Law School but dropped out to work for the American Book Company for five years. He then became business manager of the

Washington Square Players The Washington Square Players (WSP) was a theatre troupe and production company that existed from 1915 to 1918 in Manhattan, New York City. It started as a semi-amateur Little Theatre then matured into a Repertory theatre with its own tourin ...

. In 1917, while on his way to China and Japan with a friend, Austen "Billy" Parker, to study traditional Asian theater, he became stranded in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, unable to find passage on any of the ships transiting the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

because of shipping diversions due to demands of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he and Parker decided to head for France to join the war effort. On March 28, 1917, Tucker joined the French Foreign Legion, but only a few weeks later in April he transferred to the

Lafayette Flying Corps The Lafayette Flying Corps is a name given to the American volunteer pilots who flew in the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) during World War I. It includes the pilots who flew with the bona fide Lafayette Escadrille squadron. Numbers The e ...

. From May 22, 1917 to January 26, 1918, he was in training at the aviation schools of Avord, Pau, and Le Plessis-Belleville, being breveted pilot (Caudron) and promoted to corporal on September 30, 1917, and attaining a record as a skillful and courageous pilot. On January 28, 1918 he was sent to the front, assigned first to Escadrille Spad 74, transferring later to Spad 15 in the Groupe de Combat 13. In June he was promoted to sergeant. On July 8 he was part of a routine patrol of five Spads when they encountered 15 German Fokkers in the Soissons and Chateau-Thierry area. The other four returned to base but Tucker was reported missing. He was found with the wreckage of his plane in a field along the

Longpont Longpont () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It is around 13 km southwest of Soissons, and around 75 km northeast of Paris. As at 2018 it has a population of 255. The former Longpont Abbey i ...

Chaudun Chaudun () is a commune in the department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Aisne department The following is a list of the 799 communes in the French department of Aisne. The com ...

road or on a battlefield at

Vierzy Vierzy () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Aisne department The following is a list of the 799 Communes of France, communes in the French Departments of Fr ...

- the German records are incomplete. He died of his wounds and after the war his body was identified and buried in an American war cemetery at Seringes-et-Nesle.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Dudley Gilman 1887 births 1918 deaths American military personnel killed in World War I Aviators killed by being shot down Harvard University alumni Lafayette Escadrille Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Columbia Law School alumni Military personnel from New York City Missing in action of World War I