A continuation to the ’Tiny’ Peck MM story came my way this week.
I spotted on eBay a scrapbook of clippings relating to the Suffolk Army Cadet Force in the 1970s, but interspersed amongst these were random press items that related to military figures from Suffolk from that time.
One clipping recalled how the Suffolk Regiment Old Comrades Association were trying to track down Mr Jack Peck who was believed to be living in Ipswich, to invite him to the annual reunion at Gibraltar Barracks in August 1971.
The OCA were also trying to establish if Mr Peck was aware that he now graced the front and rear covers of the comic the ‘Victor’ with a characterisation of how he won the Military Medal with Second Suffolk at Sedang near Imphal in May 1944.
At that time, enquiries by the Ipswich Branch of the OCA had drawn a blank, but the ever intrepid Ipswich ‘Evening Star’ ran Mr Peck to Earth without too much trouble (though probably with a lot of journalistic leg work!) and found him alive and well and living in Ipswich. He was then working as a bus driver.
Mr Peck was duly photographed outside his front door with a copy of the comic that bore his name and the rest as they say is history.
I’m currently penning a piece for our latest ‘Friends of the Suffolk Regiment’ magazine to tell of his ‘rediscovery’ and his return to regimental life. He was to remain in Ipswich for the remainder of his life, later we believe, running a shop in the town. He died in Ipswich in 1987.
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