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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 335

(x) A particularly interesting group of eight awarded to Brigadier D. R. G. Peal, Mahratta Light Infantry, late 16th Rajputs and 1st Lancers, who won two well-publicised court cases in the 1930s

British War and Victory Medals (Lt. D. R. G. Peal.); India General Service 1908-35, 4 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Waziristan 1919-21, Waziristan 1921-24, Burma 1930-32 (2-Lt. D. R. G. Peal, 1 Lrs.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style as worn by Hawkes & Co. Ltd., the first and second issued in India, the third officially re-impressed, the remainder all privately engraved 'I.A. 771 Brig. D. R. G. Peal', very fine (8)

Daryl Robert George Peel was born on 11 April 1919 and was appointed to a commission with the Mahratta Light Infantry on 13 February 1918. Having served as a Gentleman Cadet at the Cadet College, Quetta, he was made Lieutenant and transferred from the substantive unattached list to the 1st Lancers in April 1919. Transferred again to the 16th Rajputs and Mahratta Light Infantry, Peal witnessed extensive service on the North West Frontier and Waziristan, having being promoted a Captain in the Indian Army on 13 February 1923 (London Gazette 29 February 1924, refers). Advanced Major on 9 September 1935, he transferred to the ex-Indian Army Special Unemployed List on 11 April 1949 (London Gazette 6 May 1949, refers).

Despite leading a successful military career, it appears that Peel had struggles at home which were twice subject to articles in The Times. On 8 July 1930, it published a piece originating from events at the High Court of Justice:

'By her petition, dated April 18, 1928, Mrs. Delphine Monica Peal, nee Peal, of St. John's Road, Harrow, prayed for a decree of restitution of conjugal rights on the ground that her husband, Captain Daryl Robert George Peel, of the Indian Army, at present living at Marish Court, Langley, Buckinghamshire, had withdrawn from cohabitation without just cause. The marriage took place on May 23, 1921, at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Francis, Naini Tal, India, and there is one child, a daughter.

By his answer the respondent said that the ceremony of marriage was invalid because the petitioner was the daughter of the respondent's paternal grandfather, and that they were, therefore, within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. On that ground Captain Peal filed a separate petition for the decree of nullity of marriage.'

The article further went on to state Mrs Peal's version of events that the marriage was valid and duly solemnised according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The case set a precedent, His Lordship noting:

'What was really in question was whether British subjects in India, who happened to be Roman Catholics, belonged as regarded capacity to marry in a distinct and legally different class from their British fellow subjects. If they did, it would seem that of their own volition, contrary to the general law, by marriage within the prohibited degrees, they might create relationships and confer successional rights and interests in prejudice of the statutory rights and interests of their kin.'

He therefore declared that the ceremony of marriage in 1921 was null and void, the Court being required at a later date to consider the material interests and care and upbringing of the little girl.

On 19 March 1936, Peal returned to the pages of The Times with an article originating from the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice:

'The jury, by a majority verdict, found for the defendant in this slander action in which M. Edmond de Landauer, of Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, N.W., claimed damages against Captain Daryl Robert George Peal, of St. Peter's, Bude, Cornwall, in respect of words which were said to have been uttered by the defendant in a Hampstead boarding house on April 19, 1935. The plaintiff, who is a French subject, alleged that the words meant that he had been guilty of a criminal offence under the Official Secrets Act, 1911, and that he was a traitor of France and this country.

Mr. Holmes, in opening the case, said that the slander complained of charged the plaintiff with being a spy in this country in the pay of the German Government.'

Following witness statement from the landlady of the boarding house, Detective-Sergeant William Rogers of Scotland Yard, and Captain Peal himself, in defence, the jury found for Peal by a majority of eight to four against M. Landauer, described in court as 'the Baron' due to his oil-derived wealth; sold with copied articles, original MIC confirming BWM and VM issued in India whilst a Lieutenant with the 2/67 Punjabis, and original WW2 compliment slip confirming entitlement.


Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.