George Edward Peake
Names: Peake, George Edward
Born: 1922, Western Province
In summary: Founding member and national chairman of the South African Coloured People's Organisation, served in the navy in World War II, active member of the Building Workers' Union. defendant in
Founding member and national chairman of the South African Coloured People's Organisation in the 1960s. Born in the Cape in 1922. He finished 10 years of schooling and became apprenticed as a bricklayer. After serving in the navy in World War II, he became an active member of the Building Workers' Union. SACPO was founded in 1953, and Peake served as chairman through the period of the Treason Trial, in which he was a defendant from 1956 until late 1958. He received banning orders in 1955 and again in 1961, after being detained for five months without charge during the 1960 emergency. In March 1961 he was elected to the Cape Town City Council, but in 1962 he was jailed for two years for his involvement in a sabotage plot. House-arrested in 1964, he fled South Africa.
