Names

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Brigadier Christopher Henry Maxwell Peto, of Kenwith Castle, near Bideford, formerly MP for the old North West Devon Division, was born in February 1897, and is the second son of the late Sir Basil Peto, first baronet, and grandson of the late Sir Morton Peto, Bart.

Educated at Harrow School, he subsequently entered the Army as a regular soldier and was commissioned in the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers in 1915. He was seriously wounded in 1918 and was mentioned in despatches.
During the recent war he was again wounded while leading the 9th Lancers against a German position during the Dunkirk retreat, and was awarded the DSO.
For nearly three years, Brig Peto commanded two different armoured brigades and subsequently became Chief Liaison Officer to the Allied contingents on Field Marshall Montgomery’s staff.
Brig Peto is widely travelled and, during the inter-war period, in the course of his military service, visited Germany, Egypt, Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, East Africa, Uganda and India.
He comes of a family that has many Parliamentary associations. His father, the late Sir Basil Peto, was Conservative member for the Devizes Division of Wiltshire, from 1910 to 1918 and for the North West Devon Division from 1922-1923 and again from 1924-1935. His grandfather, the late Sir Morton Peto, was for many years Liberal Member of Parliament for Norwich.
Brig Peto married Miss Barbara Close, younger daughter of Mr and Mrs Edwin Close, of Camberley. They have a daughter and two sons.

Mr F A Pearson coordinates local food and shelter schemes in 1941

Co-ordination of Local Food and Shelter Schemes

Responsible Officer for co-ordinating arrangements for the food and shelter schemes in conjunction with the local Councils, to meet war time emergency demands on Bideford Borough, Northam Urban and Bideford Rural District, Mr F A Pearson, Relieving Officer and Registrar for births, marriages and deaths for the area, brings to the task wide experience in organisation and essential local knowledge based on some twenty two years as relieving officer in the locality.
A Bidefordian and an Old Boy of Bideford Grammar School, Mr Pearson originally entered the teaching profession and was for five years an assistant master at Bideford Boys’ School. He then entered Battersea Training College for a final course but was released for service in the army during the last war. On return to civil life, he was a teacher at South Molton before taking up public assistance work at Bideford.
When a schoolteacher, his greatest interest was the Scout movement and he was District Scoutmaster at a time when there were over 200 Scouts in the district. Scout displays and pageants during that time are still recalled.
All kinds of sport have interested him, particularly hockey of which he was a Devon County goalkeeper and captain of the old Bideford Hockey Club. He has also been the secretary of Bideford Bowling Club and the old Bideford Football Club.
Mr Pearson took a prominent part in many Bideford amateur operatic and dramatic performances, both as a player and as secretary and manager of the companies. He has helped to raise hundreds of pounds for local charities. He was for four years, secretary of Bideford Hospital Carnival Committee which included the jubilee and record year of 1936 and, more recently, he was secretary and organiser for Bideford and the Rural District Joint Spitfire Fund for which £1,500 was raised. He has taken over the secretaryship of Bideford Grammar School Old Boys Association for the duration.
Since 1922 he has taken a responsible part in the administration of the distress funds organised by the respective Mayors of Bideford and, in conjunction with the heads of local authorities in this district, has given equally valuable help in the administration of the Lord Mayor of London’s national air-raid distress fund.
For some years he was on the Executive Committee of the Devon County Staff Association and in April 1939 was appointed chairman of the Devon branch of the National Association of Relieving Officers.

Gazette article 12 August 1941

Inaugural meeting of Bideford Branch of the Devonshire Association

Bideford branch of the Devonshire Association was inaugurated at a public meeting at Bideford Town Hall on Wednesday evening, April 25th.

Mr Inkerman Rogers being unanimously elected President.
Com. A W B Messenger, of Bideford, President-elect of the Devonshire Association and President of the North Devon branch, presided over the early part of the meeting until the election of Mr Rogers.
Proposing Mr Roger’s election, Mr R Harper said there was no-one more suitable for the office. Seconding, Mr Vernon Boyle said nothing gave him greater pleasure “I have been, in a way, one of his pupils and he has been mentor and adviser to a great many of us and encouraged interest in and love for natural beauty as well as learning” continued Mr Boyle, “I suggest Mr Rogers is a model of a citizen with wide and many interests which do not clash at all, and that, of course, is in keeping with the aims of the Devonshire Association, which is to encourage science, art and literature.”
Acknowledging, Mr Rogers said he deeply appreciated the great honour accorded him. He hoped their branch would be a complete success.
He then gave an address on Bideford Manor Court and its procedure during Saxon and early Norman periods. The origin of the Manor, he said, was still involved in considerable obscurity, but he revealed very many interesting facts of the periods which were the special subject of his address, and later. The Manorial rights were for over 700 years held by the Grenville family and then by the Cleveland family before being purchased by the Corporation, who continued to hold them.
Mr Rogers said very unfortunately the Manorial Rolls of Bideford had not been found. Manorial Rolls were extremely valuable documents and it was to be regretted that they had not to any great extent found their way into our great national depositories except in the case of the Public Records Office.
Thanks to Mr Rogers were voiced on behalf of the branch by Mr V Boyle.