Back to Album contains material relating to the death of Captain R G Peek, 9L in Ireland in 1921, with 8 photographs and ewspaper cuttings.
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| Accession number | 912L : 2325 |
|---|---|
| Transcription |
Star 25 , 4 LANCERS IN AMBUSH . About 9 o'clock this morning a party of the 9th Lancers , while proceeding from Stokestown to Longford for rations . were ambushed by a party estimated at 200 strong . The strength of the military party is not known , but it is authoritatively re ported that Captain Peak was killed , a lleuten ant seriously wounded , and all the others wounded . A running fight lasting about an hour followed , Two of the attackers were wounded . [ Another message says three soldiers and two policemen are missing . ] During the fighting five Sinn Feiners were captured , but they got away from custody . Crown forces rushed up , attempted to encirele the ambushers , but without success . Irish Pries THE LATE CAPTAIN PEEK : The Morning Post , says : -Captain Peek , of the 9th Lancers , killed by the rebels near Longford , is a nephew of the Earl of Midleton , who heard of the death of his relative as he was listening to the debate . 24.3 Waterford Standard ( No date ) REQUIEM FOR STROKESTOWN DEAD Requiem Mass was sung in St. Patrick's Church , Strokestown , for the victims of the Scramoge ambush , when Capt . Peek , another officer , and two soldiers were killed . Detachments of the Sth Lancers and E. Yorks were present with their offi cers . People from the town and surrounding districts crowded the church , and business houses were closed . Nothern Whig 28.3 . RECENT AMBUSHES . Reprisals by Crown Forces . Repricals for the Dungarvan ambush were ( says the Press Association ) carried out by Crown forces on Friday at Ballycoe House , the residence of a widow . The house is about half a mile from where the ambush took place . The roof was taken off , the furniture , which was of a superior description , smashed up , and silver teapots and various pictures broken . The house was strewn with the debris of the furniture . Considerable dam age was done to another house . A farmstead at the scene of the ambush was also destroyed , many hundreds of pounds ' damage being done . This is the seventh house attacked . Following the ambush at Scramogue , when Captain Peek , Lieut . Tennant , and the driver of the motor car were shot down , all business establishments in Strokestown , two miles from the scene of the ambush , where the Lancers were stationed , have been closed by order of the authorities . The house from which it is supposed the attack took place has been destroyed by the Crown forces . The Press Association's Westport cor respondent says : -From before 2 o'clock to 6.30 on Saturday morning Westport ( Mayo ) was turned into pandemonium by Crown forces engaged in reprisals for the recent ambush near Carrowkennedy . Houses and shops were wrecked with bombs , and furni One house ture and other effects burned . was cleared of all its furniture , which was heaped in the street and then bombed . momming Post 7.4 THE LATE CAPTAIN PEEK Captain Peek , of the 9th Lancers , whose murder in an Irish ambush near Stokes town was referred to in Our Special Correspondent's article yesterday , was a gallant soldier whose life seemed to be dogged with misfortune . In August , 1914 , he was wounded in a charge of his regiment and captured by the Germans . He spent three miserable years in cap tivity , and then was allowed to go to Switzerland , where he earned the gráti tude of his fellow officers interned with him by using his private means to secure better rations and conditions for them at a time when they were being very poorly treated by the Swiss . At the end of the war he married and wished to retire , but stayed on for a time as his regiment was short of officers , but he was to have been gazetted out last month . Captain Peek won the respect and affec tion even of the Irish , and he was referred to from the pulpit by the parish priest of Stokestown as " a perfect gentleman some weeks before his murder . The priest went on to say that he hoped when Cap tain Peek left this soldier gentleman would carry away pleasant recollections of his stay in Stokestown . " There seems a grim irony in those words now . But the fact that the town of Stokestown went into mourning for him after his murder by the Sinn Feiners shows that the feeling for him thus expressed was genuine . But the Sinn Fein murder gang " kills blind . " Devon Exetu 24.3 CAPT . PEEK Killed in Ambush . Fourteen Rebels SHOT DEAD . 20 Wounded .. A party of military and police were ambushed at 7 o'clock yesterday morning at Scra moge , Strokestown , Co. Roscommon . Captain Peek , 9th Lancers , was killed , one lieutenant , three soldiers , and one policemar were wounded , and three soldiers and two policemen are missing . The ambush was prepared at cross roads flanked by a dense wood , and it is surmised that the attack was made from the wood on one side and from houses on the other . Captain Peel was an extremely popular officer in Co. Ros common , and his tragic end is much de plored at Strokestown , where all shops were shuttered as a mark of sympathy . According to the official report the party consisted of 9th Lancers and police , and numbered nine . About forty attackers fired point blank as the car approached the bend , killing the officer and the military driver and wounding four others . The rebels de stroyed the car and took away two un wounded police . Military police captured two armed rebels . Times 24.3 Гете KOS SCRAMOGE , Strokestown , County common . Two military lorries carrying prisoners to Longford were attacked at Captain 7 a.m. yesterday at cross - roads . Peek and four soldiers of the 9th Lancers were shot dead , and several others were wounded . Another report gives the casual ties as - Captain Peek killed ; a lieutenant , three soldiers , and a policeman wounded ; and three soldiers and two policemen missing . Two arrests have been made . Sketch 28.3 Daily A Young Widow . Sir Wilfrid Peek's brother , Captain Grenville Peek , killed in Ireland while on duty , leaves a young widow . It was only the year before last that Captain Peek , Lord Midleton's nephew , married Miss Joan Sclater - Booth , the elder of Lord Basing's two pretty and popular sisters . Western Trines 20.3 Another Military Ambush A party of military and police were ambushed yesterday morning at Seramoge Strokestown , Co. Roscommon . One captain was killed , one lieutenant , türee soldiers , and one policeman wounded , three soldiers and two policemen are missing . Two military lorries , in charge of Captain Peek , 9th Lancers , were conveying prisoners to Long , ford when they were attacked at Seramoge . East Aughan Prines ROSCOMMON AMBUSH . A party of military and police were ambushed at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning at Scramoge , Strokestown , co . Roscommon . A captain was killed , one lieutenant , three soldiers , and one policeman , were wounded , and three soldiers and two policeman are missing . A local correspondent states that two mili tary lorries , in charge of Capt . Peek , 9th Lancers , were conveying prisoners to Long : ford when they were attacked at Scramoge . The captain and four soldiers were shot dead , and several others were wounded . Suney 2.4 CAPT . PEEK'S DEATH . The Earl of Midleton's nephew , killed by Sinn Feiners in Ireland last week , was not Capt . Sir Wilfrid Peek , as stated in last Sat urday's issue , but Capt . R. G. Peek , 9th Lan cers , younger son of the late Sir Cuthbert Peek . We copied the report from the daily papers . 24.3 Juch Traves 29 . The funeral of Capt . Roger Grenville Peek , ) 9th Lancers , who was killed on March 23 while duty in Ireland , takes place to - day at Loddiswell Church , Devon . Capt . Peek was the younger son of the late Sir Cuthbert Peek , Bt . , on of Rousdon , Devon , and of the Hon . Lady Peek , sister of the Earl of Midleton . |
