Morris Walter Tucker

Morris Tucker was brought up on a farm on Exmoor, his father Walter, who had served in the Boer war, died when he was only thirteen. When his mother, Eliza, had to give up the farm he was sent to friends in Kent to finish school. His mother managed to get a guesthouse in Maidencombe where he later joined her, farming a small area of land owned by his aunt.

He was discharged 12th October 1942 due moving with his mother to a farm in North Devon, partly because the guesthouse business became impossible in Torbay but it was also his ambition to get back into farming. His mother continued to take guests in their farmhouse near Hartland and he joined the coastguard.

While Morris did speak briefly about having been in the coastguard in North Devon (on parade with broom sticks), he never spoke of being in the "secret army" until there was a piece on TV about it shortly before his death in 1995 and he told his wife Margaret (nee Morton) that he had been an Auxilier.

The family were all very surprised because as he was such a quiet, reserved man they could not imagine him doing anything like that. He spent his whole life farming and was milking his cows twice a day seven days a week until the age of 68.