George PEACOCK (1876–1918)
George Peacock was born in Lee in Kent in 1876, the son of George Tibbs Peacock (born in Bromley, Kent in 1851) and Susan Perkins (born in Crediton, Devon in 1849). His parents were married in the Bromley district in the third quarter of 1873 and had three children. The two who survived infancy were:
- Edith Ann Peacock (born in Lee, Kent in 1873/4)
- George Peacock (born in Lee, Kent in 1876, registered second quarter).
George’s father was a gardener. At the time of the 1881 census, when George was 5, the family was living in Lee at 3 Burnt Ash Hill, Kurslake Terrace with three lodgers. Their address in 1891 is given as 194 Burnt Ash Hill, and George (15) was then a gardener’s assistant.
George’s only sibling Edith Annie Peacock married a Rumanian billiard table maker, Frantz Anton Martins, in the Lewisham district in the fourth quarter of 1896, and they went to live in Camberwell. They had no children, and Frantz died near the end of 1903 at the age of 42.
George Peacock married Sophie Gray (born in Norwich on 20 April 1876) in the Lewisham registration district in the third quarter of 1904, and they had two children:
- Doris May Peacock (born in the Lewisham district on 26 October 1905)
- Ernest Jack Peacock (born in the Lewisham district in 1907/8, registered first quarter of 1908).
At the time of the 1911 census George, who was still working as a gardener, lived with his wife and children at 22 Heather Road in Lee; and in the same road at No. 1 were his parents and his widowed sister Edith Martins (37).
George Peacock appears to have moved to Norwich (where his wife was born) soon after 1911, as it is recorded that he lived there, although he enlisted in Oxford.
Ypres Reservoir Cemetery
In the First World War George Peacock enlisted in Oxford and served as a Private in the “Y” Ammunition Park (attached XXII Corps) of the Royal Army Service Corps (Service No. M2/192460). He was killed in action in Belgium on 3 January 1918 at the age of 42 and is buried at the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery (Grave IV. A. 9). He is remembered on the war memorial in St Leonard’s Church at Sunningwell.
Right: Photograph of George Peacock’s grave in Belgium. The text reads:
[Emblem of the
Royal Army Service Corps]
M2/192460 PRIVATE
G. PEACOCK
ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS
3RD JANUARY 1918
†
The photograph of Peacock’s grave and of Ypres Reservoir Cemetery (above) were kindly supplied by British War Graves
George Peacock’s parents moved to Lydgate in Sunningwell very close to the time of their son’s death, as they are first listed there in Kelly’s Directory for 1918.
POSTSCRIPT
George’s widow
- Sophie Peacock (Mrs George Peacock) was living at 1 Albert Street in Jericho, Oxford at the time of the 1939 Register with her daughter Doris. Sophie died in Oxford at the age of 63 in March 1940 and was buried in Botley Cemetery. .
George’s children
- Doris May Peacock (born 1905) married Wilson G. Dibble in Oxford in 1954. She died in Oxford on 22 December 1999.
- Ernest Jack Peacock married Phyllis Marion Godwin Hall at St Peter-in-the-East Church, Oxford on 21 September 1929. He was living at 7 Kingston Road in 1935. He was living at 103 Cowley Road, Oxford when he died in 1959 at the age of 51. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
George’s parents
At the time of the 1921 census George Tibbs Peacock (68), described as a jobbing gardener, was living at Lydgate, Boars Hill, Sunningwell with his wife Susan (70) and their widowed daughter Edith Martin (47). He was still listed at that address in Kelly’s Directory for 1928.
- Susan Peacock (Mrs George Tibbs Peacock) died at Foxcombe Hill at the age of 80 and was buried at Sunningwell Church on 12 May 1929
- George Tibbs Peacock died at the age of 78 (wrongly recorded as 75, but George gave his age wrongly in all the censuses) just four months after his wife: he was then living at 2 Oxford Road, Abingdon. He was buried at Sunningwell Church on 10 September 1929.
See also
- CWGC: Peacock, G. FindMyPast confirms this is the right man, as he was born at Lee in Kent, lived in Norwich, and enlisted at Oxford
- Wikipedia: Royal Army Service Corps