Post war
The next stage of Peter’s rehabilitation to ‘normal’ life was indeed to travel to India. It was to Calcutta rather than Bangalore as he had anticipated in his first letter. According to his service record, he disembarked the SS Verda on 24 September 1945 at Calcutta, and from there went to a Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees - RAPWI - (known to the troops as “Retain All Prisoners of War Indefinitely”) camp at Belvedere.
The experience of another ex-POW arriving at Camp Belvedere is as follows:
“Left at 11am (local time) in rain. Went up to about 15,000 feet on top of the clouds, which were very beautiful. The Himalayas were all covered in cloud and there was nothing to be seen of them. We came down lower over the delta of the Ganges and could see quite a lot through gaps in the clouds. We came down to Alipore aerodrome, making another pretty bad landing. There everything was laid on for us. Ambulances to meet us, tea, etc., and they knew all about us. We were driven to Belvedere, which had been turned into a camp for RAPWI. I shared a very pleasant hut, furnished by the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, with Freddie Harrison. After a meal there we went round what had been the ballroom, where there were officers of the pay people, RTO, and everybody else one wanted. In the evening there was a very good piano recital.”
The full story of Brigadier E.W. Goodman’s journey home is available on the following website, from where I derived the above section: https://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/WW2/Brigadier_EW_Goodman/html/journey_home.htm
After his rehabilitation at the RAPWI camp, Peter continued to have what was known as RAPWI leave until 6 May 1946, when he returned to active duty with the 1st Gurkha Rifles.
Peter O'Neal Curriculum Vitae
Family
First marriage
During his rehabilitation leave, he married Ursula Garrard, his first cousin. The address which Ursula is recorded as living at after her wedding, is ℅ 1 Gurkha Regiment, Dharamshala. So this young and naive lady (she was 22 years old, and from a very protected background) was suddenly living in a very remote and alien place. This must have been quite a shock to her, and may have been difficult to adapt to.
Nine months after their wedding, their first child Edythe Ann was born, in Kangra, India.
Between this time and September 1947, Peter was promoted, first to Acting Major, and then to Major, (from Captain during his period of captivity).
By 1948, Peter was working in civilian life as an assistant at the Rubber Estate Agency of London. He moved up the ranks rapidly, so that by 1965, he was executive in charge of a large group of estates and planting companies.
On 1 August 1948, their second child, a son, John Peter Garrard was born, in Pinner, Surrey.
By all accounts it was a difficult marriage, and in August 1959 Ursula and Peter went on holiday to Cornwall, as far as I understand as an attempt to heal the rifts in the marriage.
Ursula, Peter and Ann with a cat called “Charlie boy”.
Peter and Ursula.
In both pictures Peter looks somewhat uncomfortable. This is probably because, by this time he had already started a relationship with Ursula’s brother’s (Ian Garrard) wife Veronica. He appears to have had no intention of a reconciliation with his first wife, even at this stage.
Nine months after this holiday, in June 1960, their third child - another son, Alan, was born. He was born after Peter had left Ursula, who had found two one way tickets back to Malaya - one for Peter and the other was not for her, it was for Veronica.
Tragically, on 17 March 1977 their son John died.
Second marriage
This must have been a very difficult time for everyone involved. 1959-60 was still a period when divorce was not really socially accepted, and adherence to the nuclear family was considered more of a moral imperative than it is now. So for the daughters and son - each children of clergymen, all who knew each other this must have been remarkably painful.
In order for Peter to gain a divorce from Ursula, he moved to Malaya to live out a two year separation. This also meant a two year separation from Veronica, as she stayed in England to prevent any scandalous connection before their getting together.
After 3½ years, Veronica left her husband and two children to be with Peter. She went to Malaya where she and Peter married. They returned to England in 1965, and Peter found work in the City of London as a product broker, which I understand he did not enjoy.
In 1969 they had a son, Alexander.
Peter died suddenly of a heart attack, at the age of 59, in 1974, just four months after his mother, Dot.
This is perhaps the last picture of Peter, seen here with his nephews and nieces, from his brother Ronnie - Hugh, Chris, Elizabeth (Liz) and Alison.