Lance Corporal ROGER EDWARD PEEL

The first connection with Odiham found for Roger Peel was a Probate letter accompanying a copy of his will now in the possession of his cousin’s granddaughter, Valerie Lilley, who has been in contact with me.  This Probate letter begins “BE IT KNOWN that Roger Edward Peel of Odiham, in the County of Hants, Lance Corporal H.M. Hampshire Regiment, formerly of Stamford in the County of Lincoln ……”.  However, a recent exploration of the Hampshire Regiment section of ww1photos.com has revealed a photograph of ’L/Cpl R E Peel, 3443 – 4 Bn Hampshire Regiment’ (Ill.2) from which we can see that he worked in Lloyds Bank, Odiham before the war.   The caption on the photograph, which appeared in the Lloyds Bank Memorial Album 1914 -1918, is ‘R E Peel, Odiham’.

Roger Peel was born in Wymering, near Cosham, in Hampshire in 1892, the second child of George, a farmer, and Mary Peel.  Roger had an older brother, George, four younger brothers and a sister, Gladys, who was the third child of the family^[i].  Roger’s father, George Peel, died in 1907^[ii].  In 1911 we find that his mother, Mary, was married to another farmer and the family, with the exception of Roger, was still living in Wymering^[iii].  Roger was at this time living in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where he worked as a bank clerk.^[iv]  When he moved to Odiham is not known, but it must have been before mid-1914, for on 11 July 1914, he departed for Canada from Liverpool on board the Pomeranian, destined for the port of St Johns, Newfoundland^[v].   He was following his elder brother, George, who had departed from London on board the Ionian destined for Montreal on 25 June 1914^[vi]. George had given his occupation as ‘farming’.  Roger may have spent some time in Canada, as he is commemorated on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial^[vii], as is George, who enlisted with the 87^th Bn. Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment)^[viii].  George was killed in action in France on 14 August 1917 and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. 

Although we are not sure when Roger returned to England or the date he enlisted at Winchester, the home base of the 4^th Hampshire Regiment, we do know from his medal roll that he first entered a  theatre of war (Mesopotamia) on 25 October 1915^[ix].  According to the National Probate Calendar index, he died on 21 May 1916 at 19 British Field Ambulance Fallahiyeh, which, as we can see on the map, is between Sannaiyat and El Hanna.  The Battalion war diary entry for 21 May indicates that the two deaths on that day were caused by cholera, almost certainly contracted at Sinn Abtar.  Roger Peel was one of these casualties. 

Roger Peel is commemorated in four different locations – the Basra Memorial in Iraq, the Odiham War Memorial, the Wymering War Memorial and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.  He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal 1914-19^[x].  Following Probate, Roger’s effects were valued at £1405.14s.6d, an indication of his successful career in Lloyds Bank.