Pegg Sid and Ray

Sid and Ray Pegg

Sid was born as Sidney Christopher in 1919 and Ray as Raymond in 1928. (These dates are presumed from public records on the basis that the maiden name of the mother of both babies was Lawson and they were both registered in south Birmingham, there being no other pair of boys born in this quadrant of the 20^thcentury with such a match.)

Both Peggs were long-standing Communists in the Birmingham area in the post-war period, active as AEU shop stewards.

Sid Pegg was the Secretary of the Longbridge branch of the Party when, in 1951, he and some seven hundred other workers were selected for redundancy. A strike and mass lay-off of several hundred thousand workers lasted several days before a settlement ensued.

He stood for the Party in a number of local election contests in Birmingham, including in 1958 in the Springfield ward in the south of the city and in the 1970 general election in the Stechford constituency. 

Sid Pegg died in July 2011 aged 92 years.

Ray Pegg, his younger brother was long associated with the Clarion Choir.

Ray also recorded his wartime memories, which include a story about an elder sister, who worked at the Birmingham Small Arms company in Small Heath, which was very heavily bombed towards the end of November 1940, although she escaped harm by not being scheduled to work that night:  “All these girls and workers were down in the basement of the factory in the shelter and it had a direct hit and all the heavy machinery came down.  They were either killed or trapped, and my understanding is that all those people are still entombed under there to this day.”

The records suggest a family of nine children with the name of Pegg born to a mother previously named Lawson and registered in Kings Norton, South Birmingham in the inter-war years, including Ray and Sid.