Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

George Sheck was born at Gunbower or Echuca to cook Ah Sheck and Margaret Hickey. The family had shifted northwards to Deniliquin, NSW by the 1890s where Margaret Hickey is known to have had other children who were half-siblings to George. George Sheck’s sister Alice later claimed that when they were ‘very young’ their mother Margaret abandoned them. The mother was later known as Mrs Margaret Ham Lung of Deniliquin. Nothing further is known about their father Ah (or Archie) Sheck. By the early years of the twentieth century George was living in Bendigo, working as a jockey and trainer. George lost his brother William Sheck, also a jockey, when he was killed in a racing accident at Jubilee Park, Bendigo, in 1905. Ten years later George’s half-brother Herbert James Hickey was killed in action at Gallipoli in 23 May 1915. By 8 July 1915 Private Hickey’s death was being reported in the press. Two days later, and maybe in response to news of his brother’s death, 37-year-old George Sheck enlisted at Bendigo. Prior to enlistment George Sheck had also been near Stawell where his sister Mrs Alice Currie was living. Alice was George’s designated next-of-kin and only surviving close relative other than his mother. By the time that George was serving overseas she too had relocated to the Bendigo region, giving her address as Maiden Gully. Sheck saw active service in France with the 22nd Battalion AIF. He landed at Marseilles in May 1916 via a stopover in Alexandria. His time in the front lines was to be short: George Sheck was killed in action at Pozieres on 5 August 1916. According to an eyewitness report later gathered by the Red Cross George was killed by a wound to the head in the German communications trench at Tom’s Cut on Pozieres Ridge.