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1889 May 17. Born Wood Green, Middlesex
1891 census at Brownlow Rd, Tottenham with grandparents
1901 census at 96, Graham Road, Wimbledon
1911 census. Pegler, Douglas Henry: 58th Battery Royal Field Artillery, Ferozepore, India : Bombardier 58 Battery R T A. Age 22
1914 Sep 11 . Lands in France1916 Sep 18. The Imperial War Museum has a ms diary (133pp) inscribed `Part II' and describing his service as the Battery Sergeant Major of B Battery 106th Brigade RFA (24th Division) during their operations in the Ypres Salient, January - July 1916, including a German gas attack on 17 June and a trench raid on 29 June, and in the Battles of Delville Wood, Guillemont and Flers-Courcelette during the Somme offensive, August - September 1916. The entries capture particularly well the scale and detritus of the Somme battlefield and also include interesting references to the first use of tanks on 15 September 1916, air activity over the trenches, the incidence of casualties in the Battery and the presence of the Prince of Wales on the Western Front. Captain D. H. Pegler, then a Battery Sergeant Major with the RFA, recorded his recollections of the battle that day. I have forgotten the ‘Land Crabs’ – the great armoured cars that took part in the battle of the fifteenth – some are lying on their backs, mangled masses of twisted and broken iron, others are back in their repairing yards, all are more or less crocked, but Gad the execution they did was awful. It struck me as I saw them from the corner of Leuze Wood how symbolic of all war they were. Then one saw them creeping along at about four miles an hour, taking all obstacles as they came, spluttering death with all their guns, enfilading each trench as they came to it – and crushing beneath them our own dead and dying as they passed. I saw one body on a concrete parapet over which one had passed. This body was just a splash of blood and clothing about two feet wide and perhaps an inch thick. An hour before this thing had been a thinking breathing man, with life before him and loved ones awaiting him probably somewhere in Scotland, for he was a kiltie. Nothing stops these cars, trees bend and break, boulders are pressed into the earth. One had been hit by a large shell and the petrol tank pierced. She lay on her side in flames, a picture of hopelessness but every gun on her uppermost side still working with dogged determination. The firing gradually slackened and she lay silent, the gallant little crew burned to death each man at his gun.
1917 Apr 19. Commissioned. The undermentioned Wt. and N.C.O's. to be 2nd Lts. for service in the Field: — R.F.A.— Batt. Serjt.-Maj. Arthur Batt. Serjt.-Maj. Douglas Henry Pegler.
1917 Married in Middlesex to Elizabeth M Rossiter
1918 Oct 19 . RFA. The undermentioned 2nd Lts. to be Lts.D. H. Pegler.
1919 Jan 15. RFA . Lt. D. H. Pegler, R.F.A., to be Adjt. said to be actg. Capt., with pay and allces. of a Lt. whilst so empld.
1920 Jan 14. RFA The undermentioned Lts. retire, receiving a gratuity.: — D. H. Pegler.
1920 Dec 20. Joined ADRIC with service no 1287. Posted Depot Coy
1920 Dec 31 Promoted Section Leader.
1921 Jan 24. Posted to O Coy
1921 Feb 2. A number of auxiliaries were killed at Ballinlee, Granard, Longford. A large IRA party ambushed 2 Crossley Tenders with Auxiliaries. 4 of the Auxiliaries died in the ambush. He attends the funeral of T/Cadet Houghton in Cheltenham "Among the mourners, the young widow was a pathetic figure. The Cheltenham relatives attending were..... Behind the relatives came three officers of the deceased's Company, "M" Co., Auxiliary Division, R.I.C. - Major (Sic) D.H. Pegler, R.A.; Capt. H.A. Paton Bruhl, Queen's Regiment; and Capt. C.H. Maddox, Welsh Regiment and R.F.C." Pegler is not noted as being in M Coy in the register.
1921 Mar 13. An ADRIC patrol under DI3 Pegler shot Timothy Hourihan when he ran away from their patrol. The single shot that killed Hourihan was at 800 yards by T/C GF Constable, who was either a very good or a very lucky marksman. Again Peglar signs himself as Major
1921 May 23 Posted to J Coy as CQM
1921 Dec 19.Relinquishes CQM and reverts to T/C (discipline)
1922 Jan Discharged on demobilisation of ADRIC
1928 May 15. Lt. D. H. Pegler(ret) on conviction by the Civil Power, is removed from the Army, His Majesty having no further occasion for his services. He had been sentenced to 9 months for fraud
1939 Register. Living at 16 Blawith Rd, Harrow. He was a Commercial Traveller, living with his wife Elizabeth M.
1974 Apr/Jun Died Northumberland