Pegg, Charles
Ex-Sergeant
No. 4361, Royal Irish Rifles, transferred to
No. 52098, Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers)
Died:
Not known
Buried:
Not known
Commemorated:
Newtownards and District War Memorial
BIOGRAPHY
The name Charles Pegg is listed on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in the booklet produced for the Unveiling and Dedication Ceremony held on Saturday 26 May 1934 he is described as a Sergeant in the Royal Irish Rifles. The organising committee of the day decided to include the names of ex-servicemen who died up to that date from what they considered to be war related causes, whether as the result of wounds or disease.
Initially, two possible Charles Peggs were identified:
Details for the first Charles Pegg, who is not the one commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial:
Charles Pegg (aged 17 years 6 months) from Buttevant, Co Cork worked as a groom before he joined the Army on 16 October 1868 in Belfast.
Corporal Charles Pegg (aged 33) and Mary Anne Henry (aged 27) were married on 12 May 1884 in St Anne’s Parish Church of Ireland Church Belfast. Corporal Charles Pegg, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers from 97 Wilton Street, Belfast was a widower and a son of John Pegg, a soldier. Mary Anne Henry from 112 Wilton Street, Belfast was a spinster and a daughter of James Henry, a bundler.
Charles and Mary Anne Pegg (nee Henry) had at least two children:
Margaret Ann (born 15 June 1885 at 113 Wilton Street, Belfast)
James (born 24 November 1887 at 60 Wilton Street, Belfast)
Corporal Charles Pegg had previously been married to Mary Jane Kelly. He was serving with HM 89th Regiment of Foot in Rangoon, Burma and he was a Private (aged 23) from Bangalore, India when he and Mary Jane Kelly (aged 14) from Bangalore, were married on 8 July 1874 in St Mark’s Church, Bangalore. They had at least two children:
John Elisha (born 1 April 1875 at Madura)
Charles Walter (born 2 November 1880 at Rangoon; baptised 13 November 1880 in Rangoon Cantonments)
Mary Jane Pegg (nee Kelly) died of fever on 14 June 1882 (aged 24), and was buried at Kolhapur.
In Claims to Pension Submitted to Chelsea Board records it is noted that Corporal Charles Pegg (No. 1560) Royal Irish Fusiliers served in India and was discharged at his own request on 18 January 1887 after 18 years’ service. His address was 17 Albany Street, Shankill Road, Belfast.
This Charles Pegg worked as a night-watchman and died of tuberculosis on 17 November 1888 (aged 38) at 85 Wilton Street, Belfast.
Details for the second Charles Pegg, who is the one commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial:
Charles Pegg joined the Army as a Boy Soldier on 26 September 1895 in Belfast and it was noted in his attestation papers that he was born in India (in another record his birthplace is recorded as England); he was 14 years 11 months old; he was a musician; he was 4 feet 9½ inches tall with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair; he had a scar on the back of his head, two small spots tattooed on his right forearm, a scar on his right buttock and several small dots on his left forearm. He declared that, up until then, he had been attending HMS Grampian and had been released to join the Regular Army. He joined the Royal Irish Rifles (No. 4631), later transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (No. 52098).
[The Industrial School ship Gibraltar was established in 1872 by a committee of leading inhabitants of Belfast, and it accommodated 310 Protestant boys aged 10-14. That same committee ran the Fox Lodge Industrial School for boys under the age of ten. Around 1889 the Gibraltar was renamed Grampian and then closed in March 1899. HMS Grampian’s role was taken over by the Fox Lodge Industrial School, which was renamed the Balmoral Industrial School.]
Before attending HMS Grampian, Charles Pegg attended the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin.
In his Army records it is noted that Charles Pegg was appointed Bugler on 27 October 1896, he attained his 18th birthday on 26 October 1898 and he was appointed Bandsman on 5 March 1903.
In the 17 October 1899 edition of The Police Gazette, Charles Pegg’s name was included in the list of Deserters and Absentees from Her Majesty’s Service. Published details included: Regimental No. 4631; 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles; aged 19; 5 feet 7 inches tall with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair; a musician by trade; enlisted on 26 September 1895 in Belfast; born in India; went absent on 2 October 1899 in Holywood; scar on the back of his head.
In his Army records it is noted that Charles Pegg was promoted to the rank of Corporal on 31 October 1914 and to the rank of Sergeant on 21 November 1914. Sergeant Pegg was retained in Service under the Military Service Act after 21 years of service on 25 September 1917. He was transferred to the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers on 15 May 1918.
Charles Pegg served at Home from 26 September 1895 to 17 December 1895, in India from 18 December 1895 to 15 February 1899, at Home from 16 February 1899 to 29 August 1915, in the Mediterranean from 30 August 1915 to 24 September 1918 and at Home from 25 September 1918 to 29 April 1919 when he was discharged; a total of 23 years 216 days in service. His address at discharge was recorded as 34 Winchester Road, Southampton.
Sergeant Charles Pegg was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, and it was noted that he had an older brother named William.
Bandsman (Bugler) Charles Walter Pegg, Royal Irish Rifles of Portobello Barracks, Dublin and Mary (Minnie) Gribben of 14 Portobello Road, Dublin were married on 9 November 1904 in Dublin Registrar’s Office. Charles Walter Pegg (born in England) was a full-age bachelor and a son of Charles W. Pegg, a publican (deceased). Mary Gribben was a daughter of Thomas Gribben, a tailor.
Charles and Mary Pegg (nee Gribben) had eight children including:
Lillie Josephine (born 4 July 1905 in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin)
Mary Matilda (born 22 September 1906; died of debility 27 September 1906 at Portobello Dublin aged 5 days)
Minnie (born prematurely 6 February 1908 in South Street, Newtownards; died 12 February 1908)
Margaret (Maggie, born 6 February 1909 in John Street, Newtownards; died of bronchitis 10 April 1909 aged 2 months)
William John (born 5 April 1910 in John Street, Newtownards)
Margaret Jane (born 25 December 1911 in John Street, Newtownards)
Charles Walter (born 10 November 1913 in John Street, Newtownards)
Mary Ann (born 25 September 1915 in John Street, Newtownards)
Marie Minnie (born 7 September 1916)
In 1919 Charles Pegg was convicted of bigamy and this was reported in the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline Former Newtownards Soldier’s Extraordinary Defence. The report is reproduced below:
Former soldier, Charles Walter Pegg has been sent to jail for 18 months. He was formerly a bugler on the staff of the 4th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Royal North Downs) in Newtownards.
At the Hampshire Assizes before Mr. Justice Darling, on Saturday last, ‘an extraordinary defence’ was made by Charles Walter Pegg (aged 37), a labourer, who was charged with having bigamously married Violet Sarah Ann Lockhart, at Southampton on 17 December 1918, his legal wife being then alive. Prosecuting, Mr. Temple Cooke said that the prisoner was first married in 1904, in the Registry Office at Dublin. He and his wife lived together for several years, and there were eight children of the marriage, five of whom were still living. The prisoner lived with her until he was sent overseas (he had been in the Army since his marriage). He corresponded with her while he was away, and she was drawing a Separation Allowance. On 17 December 1918 he married the second woman, whom he had known for some time, and took her to Southampton to live.
Mary Pegg, of John Street, Newtownards, gave evidence as to the marriage at the Dublin Registry office on 9 November 1904, and in cross-examination by Mr. Blake Odgers, who defended, she denied the suggestion that the man who went through the form of marriage with her was a witness of the ceremony named Charles Baker, who used Pegg’s name. Violet Sara Ann Lockhart said that she went through a form of marriage with the prisoner at Southampton, in December 1918. She had never applied for a Separation Allowance because she understood that her ‘husband’ was shortly to be demobilized.
In defence, Pegg admitted paternity of the children, but he contended that he did not go through the form of marriage with Mrs Pegg in 1904. Charles Baker, who had been a friend of his, used to keep company with the lady a lot before he (the prisoner) ‘picked up’ with her. He further contended that she went through a form of marriage with Baker, who made the statement to him before he was killed in Palestine in 1917.
In cross-examination, he said that Baker was blown to pieces, and his papers and identity discs had never been recovered. He (the witness) was engaged in making men’s wills, and Baker, whose will he saw, did not leave anything to the woman. Mrs. Pegg was recalled and stated that they were married on the strength of the Regiment, and the entry was made in battalion orders. They drew lodging allowance. The prisoner denied the truth of this statement.
Charles Walter Pegg was found guilty, and Mr. Justice Darling said he thoroughly agreed with the verdict. He said that the prisoner had ‘ruined the second woman’ (she was expecting a child by him), and he had no doubt committed perjury.
Despite the prisoner having a ‘good character’ he was sentenced to eighteen months
hard labour.
Desk searches and public appeals to date have not yet confirmed Sergeant Charles Pegg’s date of death.
There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Charles Pegg who is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial was a son of the Charles Pegg from County Cork who served in India, subsequently worked as a night-watchman and died of tuberculosis on 17 November 1888 (aged 38) at 85 Wilton Street, Belfast, and his mother was Mary Jane Pegg (nee Kelly).
In the 1921 census for England, Victoria Pegg (nee Lockhart) was described as Charles’s ‘bigamous wife’. The birth of their daughter, Mercy Lockhart Pegg, was registered in the first quarter of 1920 in Southampton, Hampshire.
The list of passengers who sailed from Liverpool on 11 December 1920 aboard the SS Carmania included Minnie Pegg (nee Gribben) and her family, headed for Juntuna, Oregon, USA:
Minnie Pegg (aged 35 years 6 months), housewife from Newtownards, daughter of Lizzie Gribben, Nazareth House, Ormeau Road, Belfast
Her daughter Josephine (aged 15 years 4 months)
Her son William (aged 10 years 2 months)
Her daughter Margaret Jane (aged 8 years 4 months)
Her son Charles Walter (aged 7 years 1 month)
Her daughter Minnie Marie (aged 4 years 3 months)
Minnie Pegg (nee Gribben) and J. F. Owens, a farmer, were married on 10 June 1924.
There is a gravestone in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA, commemorating the deaths of Charles W. Pegg (1912 – 1931) and Minnie M. Pegg 1883 – 1928).
Minnie Marie Pegg and J. C. Carter, a livestock dealer, were married on 14 July 1934. Minnie Marie died on 14 November 2007 in USA.
Margaret Jane Pegg married Andrew Widing, and she died of encephalitis on 11 September 1938 in Multnomah County Hospital Portland Oregon.