Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Husband of Mrs. E.M. Peel, 38 Johnston Street, Annandale, Sydney, New South Wales

LIEUTENANT PEEL'S COLONIAL EXPERIENCE.
Sixteen years ago Charles Alfred Peel came to this sunny land from "Dear Old Dublin," where he was born, and where probably he would have stayed had he but suspected the  experience which was in store for him in this fair harbor city. He was in his teens, his father was a wool merchant, and he was anxious to pick up colonial experience. At the age of 27 Charles Alfred sought out a Miss Emma Mary Farrell, a native of Stanmore, aged 25, and asked her, "Wilt thou?" She wilted. He took her to St. Francis' R.C. Church at  Paddington, on December 20, 1915, and the Rev. Father McNamara joined their hands in wedlock. Miss Emma said that her father was a "constructor." Charles was a sergeant in  the A. L. H.
Almost immediately after the service he left for the war, with the rank of a lieutenant. He gave her a power of attorney to draw upon his pay, and she exercised her power  generously all the time he was away, drawing something between £500 and £600 during his three years' absence.
He was invalided back from the front suffering from gas and wounds, and entered Randwick Hospital. While he lay racked with pain Emma Mary visited him in a casual sort of way  on a couple of occasions.
About this time, in 1918, he found that his wife was sharing a house with another woman, and he suggested, in their mutual interest, that she give it up, and go back to her  mother's place where she could stay until he recovered and left the hospital to earn sufficient for both of them. Charles was very friendly with his mother-in-law, and he thought  that his wife would take his advice. But Emma refused to go to Ma, unlike many wives who return to the maternal roof without persuasion. When Peel left hospital he was offered a job in Melbourne on the Census Staff, but she declined to go there with him.
They Corresponded
He went to the Southern city, however, and wrote to her while there, and she answered his letters. At this stage in Charles' story, which was being told to Mr. Acting-Justice Ralston in the Divorce Court on Wednesday, Mr. Toose, Peel's counsel, interrupted to say:
"Petitioner has been charged with deserting his wife, but we showed a letter to her counsel, and that is probably the reason why they are not defending the case today."
Peel went on to say that his wife's mother told him certain facts about his wife's conduct while he was away at the front, and on these facts was based the original petition he had  lodged against her. She had collected about £600 of his pay while he was away at the war, and when he returned she had nothing left.
He had not seen her for several years.
There was one child of the marriage but he did not ask for custody of it.
Petition Altered
His Honor, glancing at the petition, noted that Mrs. Peel had charged her husband with desertion, and he had originally charged her with having committed misconduct with some  man or men unknown between May, 1920, and February, 1923.
Subsequently the charge against the wife had been struck out, and a charge of desertion substituted.
On that issue Peel secured his release from his lost, stolen, or strayed Emma Mary.
Although Charles Alfred has to foot the wife's costs, he left the Court in excellent humor with the world, a rather striking, well-built, handsome man — an ideal Australian Light  Horseman.