Selected Biographies

Peachey, Alfred George – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 15.12.1897.[1]  Parents: Henry Frederick Wells Peachey (Headmaster) [see below for military record] and Annie [née Norton].  Family Connections: Brother to Ernest Frederick Peachey [b1895].  Home: St Mary’s Schoolhouse, Edwardstone, Suffolk (1901 and 1921), The Green, Long Melford [1916], Broad Street, Boxford, Suffolk (1939) to [1942].  Occupation: Baker [1916], Baker and Confectioner for Grigg Brothers of Boxford (1921, Baker, Confectioner and Shopkeeper (1939).  Married: Maggie Eva Bird in 1926.  Service Record: Alfred was conscripted on 26.8.1916 as Aircraft Mechanic N^o. F19861 with the Royal Naval Air Service, being posted to Dunkirk from April 1917.  On 1.4.1918 he was transferred as N^o. 219861 with the Royal Air Force, posted directly to Egypt from May to November 1919, moving to the RAF Reserve in the following month.[2]  Died: Boxford, Suffolk on 8.2.1942.[3]

Peachey, Ernest Frederick – Born: Burwell, Cambridgeshire on 13.10.1895.[4]  Parents: Henry Frederick Wells Peachey (Headmaster) [see below for military record] and Annie [née Norton].  Family Connections: Brother to Alfred George Peachey of Long Melford [b1897].  Home: St Mary’s, Schoolhouse, Edwardstone, Suffolk (1901 and 1911).  Occupation: Grocer and Draper’s Apprentice (1911).  Service Record: Ernest is recorded as Sgt.14858 with 8^th [Service] Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, being posted to France from 25.7.1915 as part of 53^rd Brigade, 18^th [Eastern] Division.  Sergeant Peachey’s battalion had been in the front-line in the Somme Valley since July 1915, periodically engaged in trench raids across no man’s land, harassing the enemy and gathering intelligence.  On the first day of the Great Push the battalion was held in the Divisional Reserve near Montauban, by 5.7.1916 although they were not directly engaged with the enemy, they were being used to take up ammunition and water to those battalions holding the new front-line.  It was probably during this phase of the Battle of Albert, the opening foray in the Somme Offensive, that Ernest was seriously wounded.[5]  Died: Ernest Peachey died at Ampthill Hospital in Bedfordshire on 13.7.1916, from injuries sustained during the first of the Battles of the Somme.  He is buried in St Marys Churchyard, Edwardstone and commemorated on the Edwardstone War Memorial.[6]

Peachey, Henry Frederick Wells – Born: Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire on 8.4.1872.[7]  Parents: Alfred Peachey (Carrier and Farmer) and Jessie Maria Olivia [née Wells].  Family Connections: Father of Ernest Frederick Peachey [b1895] and Alfred George Peachey of Long Melford [b1897].  Home: Reach, Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire (1881 to 1891), Long Melford [1897], St Mary’s Schoolhouse, Edwardstone, Suffolk (1901 to 1921), Crown House, The Street, Groton, Suffolk (1939) to [1945].  Occupation: School Monitor [1885], Teacher’s Assistant (1891), Teacher in Long Melford [1897], Head Teacher of Edwardstone School [1898 to 1932], retired Schoolmaster and a Special Police Constable (1939).  Married: Annie Norton in 1893.  Service Record:  During the Great War Henry organised a Company of the Volunteer Training Corps at Boxford, he was later given a temporary commission as a Lieutenant in 5^th Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.[8]  Died: Groton, Suffolk on 5.1.1945.[9]

Notes – [1] Date of birth from his RAF Record.  [2] Air Member for Personnel and predecessors: Airman’s Records [AIR 79/1980].  [3] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  My thanks to John Geddes of Foxearth for bringing this man to my attention.  [4] Date of birth from Baptism Register 17.11.1895, St Marys Church, Burwell, Cambridgeshire. [5] For details of Ernest’s time with 8^th Suffolks see War Diary [WO 95/2039/1-2] and Murphy, Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.146-50 and 165.  See also Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329].  [6] Commonwealth War Graves Commission record and British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 file [ref: 417521].  My thanks to John Geddes of Foxearth for bringing this man to my attention.  [7] 1939 Register.  [8] For information on Henry’s military service see the Supplement to the London Gazette 8.1.1917, p.372; also, the article in Suffolk and Essex Free Press 13.1.1932, p.372 and in Murphy, Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.378-79. [9] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  My thanks to John Geddes of Foxearth for bringing this man to my attention.