British London Armoured Car Company Sharpshooters Gunnery Cup Medal 1927 - Private George Strickland Hillary Peall
London Armoured Car Company Sharpshooters Medal - GUNNERY CUP 1927 Pte. G. S. H. Peall "B" Section
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George Strickland Hillary Peall was born on 13 March 1904 at 45 Ivy Road, Willesden, Hendon, the son of George Thomas Peall and Mary Elizabeth Peall. He grew up in a steady, educated London household, and by 1911 he was living with his family at 10 Warrington Road, Wealdstone, Harrow, recorded as a seven-year-old schoolboy. His father later served as an officer in the First World War, and the strong sense of public duty in the household shaped George from an early age.
As a young man George trained as an electrical engineer, and, unusually for the period, spent time overseas before military service. His attestation confirms that he had previously served in the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, the colonial auxiliary defence formation based in Malaya and Singapore. This overseas experience is further supported by his recorded next-of-kin: at the time of his enlistment, George named his father as NOK, listing him as residing at the Raffles Institution, Singapore—a remarkable and uncommon detail that shows how closely the family’s life was tied to Southeast Asia during the inter-war years.
On 11 March 1926, George attested for the mechanised arm of the British Army under the service number 7877252, joining the Tank Corps and being posted to the London Armoured Car Company (Sharpshooters) of the County of London Yeomanry. This was one of Britain’s foremost Territorial mechanised units, specialising in armoured cars, turret gunnery, marksmanship and mechanical proficiency. Shooting competitions were central to the ethos of the Sharpshooters, and George’s London Armoured Car Company Sharpshooters Gunnery Cup Medal reflects a high level of skill, steadiness, accuracy and technical understanding—qualities the unit prized.
On 9 July 1931 he married Violet Rosina Hampson at Christ Church, Surrey, settling with her in the Epsom and Ewell district. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the 1939 Register records him living at Branscombe, Epsom and Ewell, employed as a Despatch Rider in Civil Defence (A.F.S.), a role perfectly suited to his mechanical ability and fast, reliable temperament.
His life was touched by wartime tragedy: his brother 2nd Lt Richard Harcourt Peall was killed in the fall of Singapore in February 1942. George himself lived long beyond the war, eventually passing away on 28 February 1983 at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and is buried at St Mary’s Churchyard, Woolpit.
From early engineering work and colonial volunteer service to excelling as a gunner in one of Britain’s elite armoured Territorial units, George Strickland Hillary Peall’s life reflects an unusual blend of technical skill, overseas experience, and military accomplishment, marked most tangibly by his award of the Sharpshooters Gunnery Cup Medal.
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