Harold Kinsey Peach

Harold (Hal) was born in Nottingham in 1866. During the pre-war years Hal met and fell in love with Ada Elizabeth Allen (coll.7). He married Ada in 1909 and they had two daughters, Winnie and Doris (coll.10 - photo taken in 1917).

Hal was employed as an Inspector of Nuisances for the Nottingham Corporation (coll.11) or Sanitary Company, late Health Department, Guildhall, London (obituary). This would have been a reserve occupation and as such exempted him from the initial rounds of voluntary and prescribed periods of recruitment although an item in his scrapbook shows that despite this he was committed to the cause (coll.12) As a young man Hal was interested in sport and played football for the Gregory Rangers Football Club (coll.1&2). He was also a talented artist and put his skills to effective use drawing pen and ink likenesses of famous people who he then asked to sign them. These included politicians of the time, such as Lord Chamberlain; writers such as Mark Twain; and entertainers such as Chung Lin Soo, the first magician to perfect (and die from) the trick of catching a bullet in his teeth (coll.3). Along with the portraits, Hal also kept an autograph/scrapbook which includes the signatures of Nottingham Forest FC when they were 2nd division champions 1906-1907 (coll.4). Other entries included sketches and drawings from his friends in the Nottingham Society of Artists; a chalk sketch entitles 'La Sirenne' by Banks in 1913 (coll.5); a cartoon penned in 1906 by Tom H Fisher, the artist who later illustrated the 'Just William' stories (coll.6); and two poems written by Ada when she was 18 (coll.8&9). These poems were written in 1906, 8 years before the war broke out yet both echo sentiments that would take on a deeper significance in the future.

When Hal joined up he chose to utilize the skills that he gained from his dealing with health and medical matters, as a postcard from Doris and Winnie (coll.13) is addressed to a Red Cross Hospital in Surrey that treated injured soldiers. It is known that Hal also served in Italy with the 84th Sanitary Section of the RAMC. As such he would have not been a front line soldier but one of the many men whose duties were to aid and support his comrades. Sanitary sections were involved in ensuring troops had access to clean drinking water and their field conditions were as disease free as possible. This was a vital concern as such things as typhus, dysentery and consumption killed more soldiers than enemy fire did. It is ironic that shortly before the war ended, Hal succumbed to the very thing he sought to prevent; dying of influenza. He is buried in Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery in the province of Vicenza, Italy (coll.16).

Also on the collage is a card to Winnie from her father dated Sept 1917 which appears to be an Italian painting/photo (coll.14). This card may not have been posted and like the card to Ada (coll.15), was probably returned with Hal's effects. In 1920, Ada paid thirteen shillings and five pence to have a headstone inscribed (coll.17) which included the date that Hal died, 16 October 1918, the same day that Doris, his youngest daughter, was four years old. Also on the headstone 'Ever in our thoughts. Missed by (obscured)." Nottingham Evening Post obituary (abridged) 21 October 1918: PEACH died of pneumonia abroad, October 16th, Private Harold Kinsey Peach, London Sanitary Company late Health Department Guildhall, wife Ada and children, Winnie, Doris.