Cadet Corporal, Radley College Contingent, Junior Division, Officer Training Corps. commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant on the 24th October 1914, Surrey Brigade Company, Home Counties Divisional Transport and Supply Column.
He joined the Army Service Corps. - Home Counties Divisional Train. No. 2 (Surrey Brigade) Company, and made Lieutenant (temporary) on the 16th February 1915.
During the First World War he was a 2nd lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion Royal Hussars.
He gained his Royal Aero Club aviators' certificate on the 20th July 1917 at the Military School, Thetford, flying a Maurice Farman Biplane.
Joined the 1st Battalion Black Watch ( Royal Highlanders Regiment). He was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps as a Flying Officer on the 23rd September 1917.
Married Cressida Browning in 1925 at St. Martin, London.
Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 1st April 1941) for service in the Middle East.
On the 11th march 1941 he was transferred from the Black Watch to command the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, which he commanded through the fighting at Keren, Eritrea. He continued to command the 1st Battalion until September 1941.
Lieut.-Colonel W. R. Bucknall
(photo as a 2nd Lieut. taken 1916)
Retired from the army on the 6th April 1948 with the honorary rank of Lieut.-Colonel.
William Rixon Bucknall died 29th April 1981.
Note:
His younger brother Captain Richard Drummond Hay Bucknall (twice Mentioned in Despatches) of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) was killed in action at Singapore on the 10th February 1942, age 45.