Peachey, Frederick (Fred) Abraham William Cleaver (Sergeant, b.1892 - d.1964)

Collection relating to the First World War service of 940 Sergeant Frederick Peachey, 15th Battalion, Western Front, 1917. The collection features a map used by Peachey during his escape from German captivity. He was taken Prisoner of War during the First Battle of Bullecourt, on 11 April 1917. Peachey spent seven months as a POW, forcibly working behind German lines in France and Belgium, before his remarkable escape from Quartes, Belgium, on 5 November 1917. Peachey’s escape route first took him to Frasnes, in south-western Belgium, where he gained the map from a young Belgian girl, which she’d concealed in a rubbish heap for him. The map is marked, showing the journey Peachey took to reach the Netherlands. The collection also includes postcards and envelopes sent by the Australian Red Cross to Peachey after his capture at Reincourt (one kilometre east of Bullecourt). The German Red Cross confirmed with the Australian Red Cross that Peachey was a Prisoner of War and held at a camp at Limburg an der Lahn. In reality Peachey never went to a prison camp in Germany, having already escaped while in Belgium. The envelopes illustrate attempts by the Red Cross to get in contact with Peachey in Germany, and send food and clothing. One of the envelopes has been annotated in pencil with ‘Nicht bein EKIII 17 Armee’, indicating the Germans were uncertain of Peachey’s location; prior to his escape, Peachy was located with other prisoners from the 17th Army Corps. Peachy kept a small diary during his capture, and this is also included in the collection. The entries succinctly describe daily conditions. On April 17, shortly after his capture, he writes ‘Indoors all day, 104 in each cell, quarter loaf black bread and coffee’. The diary covers the first two months of Peachey’s capture. The final entry is dated 20 June 1917. It was another four and a half months from this point until Peachy achieved his remarkable escape. He was subsequently awarded the Military Medal for ‘gallant conduct and determination’.