LIFE LOST FOR 6½d

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21232, 1 October 1940, Page 7

LIFE LOST FOR 6½d

SAPPER’S TRAGIC FATE SHOT DEAD BY SENTRY (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, August 15 By train the journey from Petersfield to Liss in Hampshire costs 6Ad. For that sum a soldier lost his life, states the Daily Mail. Shortly before 11 o’clock one Sunday night Sapper George Samuel Peace, aged 22, of the Royal Engineers, who lived at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, alighted at Liss station. He produced a ticket which was not valid for the journey. When challenged by the ticket collector he ran through the barrier into the goods yard. On guard was Sapper Ernest Almond, also of the Royal Engineers. Almond heard someone running towards him in the darkness, and people shouting, “Stop that man.” His orders were to challenge anyone approaching and to shoot after the third challenge. “Took a Chance” The running figure passed him at the second challenge, and continued running after he shouted “Halt, or I’ll fire.” Almond then cocked his rifle, took aim at what he thought were the man’s feet. He shot Peace through the back of the neck, and Peace died instantly. This was the story told at the inquest at Bordon yesterday. The coroner, Mr R. S. L. Bowker, recording a verdict of justifiable homicide, remarked: “There is no blame a + tached to Sapper Almond, for had he not fired he would have failed in his duty. “Peace ought to have known better, but he thought he could get away with it, and took a chance.”