Private Harold R. Peat

              Figure

PRIVATE HAROLD R. PEAT
LATE 3rd BATTALION, 1st CANADIAN CONTINGENT B. E. F.


PRIVATE PEAT
ONCE in a decade circumstances conspire to make a platform offering distinctive and unique, standing alone in human interest and appeal.  Such is the position occupied by the lectures of Harold R. Peat, an irrepressible young Canadian soldier, shot-up but unsubdued, who is bringing to American audiences vivid descriptions of war scenes personally met with in the course of a marvelous experience on the fighting fronts of France and Flanders.

Young Peat has lived.  With his fellows he has faced death for an ideal, and although cruelly wounded and crippled for life in the combat, has lived to visualize the tremendous conflict where the world is caught in the battle throes of Titans.

He speaks with a boyish modesty and enthusiasm befitting the brave soldier, minimizing his own part in the stirring events through which he has passed, and exalting the cause for which he fought, and the merits of his fellows.  His story grips his hearers and holds them enthralled.  He runs the gamut of emotions, he thrills, he amuses, he moves to tears.  Yet there are no harrowing details.  It is a human narrative, with the inevitable tragedy of war hid in a cloud of genuine humor, and folks laugh and cry and stir with patriotic impulse in the magic of his voice.

Wherever he has spoken young Peat has electrified and thrilled his audiences.  Typical of the comment his lectures have aroused is the following, from the great Rockville, Ind., chautauqua, published in the Lyceum Magazine: The writer believes that the professional lecturer is doomed, and the new red blood and live wire type to come will be men and women who do things.  This was demonstrated when Lieut. H. R. Peat and his wife were here two days and nights.  The people truly were hero worshippers over the young Canadian soldier, who captured so many thousands by his interesting and simple soldier addresses, helped out in considerable degree by his vital personality, his vivid individuality and that infectious smile—that extraordinary smile which captivates an audience before it has properly formed.



Subject:
Life in the Trenches in France and Flanders


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MRS. HAROLD R. PEAT
FOR four and one-half years preceding the opening of the Great War, Mrs. Harold R. Peat, who, with her husband, Private Harold R. Peat, is touring America and speaking on subjects related to the war, was on the editorial staff of the London (England) Daily Chronicle.  At the outbreak of the war she was taken on the staff of Herbert N. Casson, the great efficiency man.  In a short time Mrs. Peat became the firm's London manager, and in January, 1915, she was commandeered by the British Government as an efficiency lecturer, her work relating particularly to the women who were called to work in the munitions factories.

Although kept busy on government labors Mrs. Peat found time to contribute liberally to various English publications, and in the English Every Woman's Magazine her stories entitled, You and Your Work (a page for women), ran for over two years.  Other articles and stories appeared in the London Daily Times, Daily Telegraph, Chronicle, Lloyd's News, Sketch and News.  In America she has contributed to the Indianapolis News and other leading publications.

Mrs. Peat has been through fourteen Zeppelin raids over different parts of England and once missed being blown to pieces by but a few inches.

In her various activities she has accumulated a fund of information which she uses with marked effect in her platform addresses.  She has had an extended experience as a speaker, being a gold medalist and member of the Royal Colonial Institute, and speaks with a power and humor rarely seen in a woman speaker.

Concerning her work the Morning Albertan, Calgary, Alberta, says: Mrs. Peat has studied war industry from a to z.  It is hard to put into print the impressive story she tells of the War Zone.  She is an Irish girl with temperament, and when she tells her story she does it with a snap of vibrant mannerism that goes home.

Her meeting with her husband is a bit of romance which she tells with naive charm.


Subject:
Women in the War Zone


MRS. HAROLD R. PEAT WRITER AND LECTURER