Hunt for hero Scotty Sim
Fred Peach was rescued from no man’s land; now his family wants to say thanks
Acentury after his grandfather was wounded on a battlefield in France, the grandson of a World War I soldier wants to finish his Pop’s story and find the family of the man who saved his life, so he can say thank you.
Churchill ‘‘Fred’’ Peach was seriously wounded when his horse was killed under him on April 9, 1918. He was found on the ground with shell wounds to his left wrist and leg and right thigh.
But another soldier picked him up from no-man’s land and got him to 56 Casualty Clearing Station in Gezaincourt, about 170km north of Paris, probably saving his life.
That soldier was ‘‘Scotty’’ Sim, but other than his name, Peach’s descendants knew little about him.
That was, until just before Christmas. It was then that a Southland farmer who runs a Facebook page identifying military photos helped them find who he was: a horseman from Ha¯ wera, Taranaki.
And, in a twist of fate, James ‘‘Scotty’’ Sim’s identity came to light on the anniversary of his birth – December 12, 1894.
‘‘I would love to be able to just contact the people and say thank you, for your grandfather, or whatever, saved mine,’’ Malcolm Hyde, grandson of Peach, said.
Born in Staffordshire, England, in 1893, one of seven children, Peach had tried to get into the British Army, but a rupture injury kept him out of uniform.
‘‘They wouldn’t take him so he hopped on a boat and came to New Zealand, and he said the Kiwis took anyone.’’
That was in 1916, and Peach became ‘‘one of the drivers for one of the horses that pulled the artillery’’, his grandson explained.
Two years later Peach was injured in battle when he was blown off his horse. The animal died but Peach survived, thanks to Sim.
Peach later wrote: ‘‘Major Northcroft had the horse’s hoofs made into ink stands and sent one to me.’’
After the war, Peach spent a few years in Levin but lived for most of his life in Shannon, Horowhenua.
In 1924 he married Gladys May Blanford and they had four children. He farmed above Shannon until he couldn’t afford to keep the farm, and became a stockman and butcher for Carter Brothers.
He served on the Shannon Borough Council from 1937-38 and 1958-59, and was also a member of the Shannon Volunteer Fire Brigade.
But he never stopped wondering about the man who had saved him back in 1918.
‘‘In 1959 my Pop tried to look for him and he wrote his name on this little piece of paper – I don’t know if he’d put it in the newspaper in New Zealand or what he did, but he was looking for him,’’
said Hyde, who now lives in Brisbane.
‘‘My mum, she kept that piece of paper. When my mum was alive she couldn’t find who this Scotty Sim was.’’
A fortnight ago, after searching for some time, Hyde sent the piece of paper to the Unknown Warriors of the NZEF Facebook page – and within a matter of days a history that had eluded the family for 100 years was suddenly opened up.
Sim, it turned out, had come to New Zealand from Dalmore, Scotland – hence the nickname ‘‘Scotty’’ – and was a horseman and farrier from Ha¯ wera when he joined the New Zealand Field Artillery.
He served in the 3rd battery at Gallipolli and on the Western Front but, unlike so many others, he made it home. He died in New Plymouth in 1966.
Hyde said he would love to meet any family of Sim and ‘‘just say thank you’’.
He has created two websites of his Pop’s history and now he wants to finish off his story.
‘‘I’m on every history site that I can find and I think you need to just keep all that information. I think it would be lovely just to finish my story for my Pop,’’ he said.
‘‘I like that we found him on the day of Scotty Sim’s birthday, just going by his record. I wonder if he was looking for him in spirit.’’
Iain Davidson, who runs the Unknown Warriors Facebook page, said it was important to commemorate the men who had fought for this country.
‘‘It gives me great satisfaction when I do actually find an identification because you can tell their story.’’
He often identifies unnamed soldiers in photos. ‘‘The sad thing is a lot of photos I identify are men killed in action, so that was the last photo. These guys, they went through a lot for our country.’’
‘‘I think it would be lovely just to finish my story for my Pop.’’ Malcolm Hyde