Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

“WHAT A GUY”
By Mary E. Metcalfe ©
Published December 2017 in the CQ Genie-ologist, the quarterly journal of the Central Queensland Family History Association Inc

“A piece of major luck!”. What does the reader imagine on hearing these words? They refer actually to the rank and surname of the subject of this story. That phrase cannot, however, describe the fate of the young strapping Queenslander who enlisted in the 4th Queensland Imperial Bushmen contingent which sailed from Brisbane, for South Africa, on 18 May 1900, on the ‘Manchester Port’. His photo by ‘Tosca” can be found in The Queenslander, 19 May 1900 supplement page 940S.

When Private Guy Harold Luck became member #272, of H Company, 4QIB, he was just eighteen years old, the third son born 6 February 1882, to parents Edward Charles Luck and Julia Atkinson Ross. His father died on 25 September 1891. This family is personally unknown to me. He was one of the men who served with my grandfather, Alexander Beveridge Cunningham, #344 of the same contingent.

Research, however, indicates that the Luck family were well known in Central Queensland at Princhester and Torilla Stations, and Cooberie, near Yeppoon. Guy, it would seem, led an adventurous life. To be accepted into the contingent, he had to fulfil the criteria of being a good horseman, a good marksman and generally fit, capabilities which would have been easily gained during station life.

While in South Africa the Queensland Bushmen were regarded for their endurance, and suffered their share of heavy fighting and deprivation. Many were invalided home early from battle wounds, or debilitated by enteric fever. Guy survived sufficiently to remain there in July 1901, when the majority of the men embarked, time expired, for the homeward voyage on the ‘Britannic.’ He transferred to the Cattle Rangers corps, as did several other 4QIB men. This was a corps for the “protection and safe conduct of captured stock”, paying wages of six shillings a day and free rations. On the engagement form they had to declare that they were “good horsemen and good shots”. The Northern Miner, (Charters Towers) Saturday 19 April 1902, page 2 gave details of the Cattle Rangers activities.

The ‘Evening News’ of 14 February 1902, page 3, reports the arrival back of Ranger Luck on the ‘Sophocles’. That same year his older brother, Edward Charles Cecil Luck, had signed on in the 7th Commonwealth Horse. Cecil was an overseer and later managed Portland Downs Station at Isisford. Newspapers of the era continue the “Luck” story.

Next destination for Guy was the Argentine and Chile where he developed business interests. The Great War broke out while Guy was visiting Australia, so he apparently negotiated his way back to Chile, to complete affairs and hastened to London, to enlist with the British Army in the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, as No 13261. Sergeant G.H. Luck was one of many veterans of the South African War who subsequently volunteered for service in a second war.

The Capricornian of 15 December 1917 page 17 indicated Guy was “wounded in the battle of Neuve Chapelle and invalided to England where he received a commission”. Service then followed in German West Africa resulting in his again being wounded, and also suffering from malaria. March 1917 he was invalided in Capetown and eventually returned to England.

A second tour of duty to France in July saw Guy pay the ultimate sacrifice at Cambrai, on 24 November 1917. Letters in the Files of the Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau at the Australian War Memorial indicate that, sadly, his grave could not be located, as that day the battalion had sustained losses of 7,000 men against the German forces. A report of the conflict is offered instead. Guy was unmarried, and is honoured on the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, at Louvreval, Doignies, France.
His name is also among those listed on the honour board of the Glenmore State School at Rockhampton.

Adventure was contained in just thirty-five years for Major Luck who was another brave Queensland Bushman for whom luck did not endure!

SOURCES:– Queensland State Archives Paysheet p 45 Microfilm No Z4203 for Guy Harold Luck #272, obtained by personal visit. Thanks to Paul T. Seto whose creative idea it was to obtain stories surrounding the 400 men in the 4QIB, as he and I both had relatives in this contingent. I then began extensive research into the backgrounds of the 4QIB men for my own interest as my grandfather may have been the oldest survivor of the 4QIB on his death in 1974. …/2
The Murray Index, Official Records of the Australian Military Contingents to the War in South Africa, compiled and edited for the Department of Defence by Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. Murray RAA (Ret) in 1910.
The Queenslander, 19 May 1900 supplement page 940S for individual photo prior to departure
Trove digitised newspapers for wide reading on the 4QIB, and Rockhampton men
Ancestry Public Trees, and UK Military Campaign Medal & Award Rolls 1793-1949, to corroborate his movements
Australian War Memorial internet files, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1494084
Qld BDMs on line for the Luck families
The Capricornian, (Rockhampton) Saturday 15 December 1917, p 17.
The Queenslander, Saturday 15 December 1917 page 40
Morning Bulletin, (Rockhampton) Saturday 23 December 1918, p 1 Roll of honour
The Western Champion, (Barcaldine), 28 March 1925 p 13 for mother Julia’s death
The Northern Miner, (Charters Towers) Saturday 19 April 1902, page 2. – re Cattle Rangers quote.
Australian Country Heritage Hospital Association Inc -www.acha.org.au for image and details of Guy Luck’s sister, Elizabeth Ada Dickason nee Luck (1877-1960)
The Brisbane Courier (QLD) Saturday 27 April 1918 pg 14, re Glenmore State School Honour Board