Pete Bovey Character Analysis in Private Peaceful

A boy from the village who ends up in Tommo and Charlie’s company in the war. He was a thatcher at home, and a great fan of drinking cider. He is a loyal friend and soldier. Pete doesn’t receive letters from his own family, because they don’t know how write, so he asks Tommo is he can read his out for him instead. Eventually Pete goes missing in action when attacking a German trench, under Sergeant Hanley’s suicidal orders.

Pete Bovey Quotes in Private Peaceful

The Private Peaceful quotes below are all either spoken by Pete Bovey or refer to Pete Bovey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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We had a brew up with our prisoner in the dugout before they came for him. He smoked a cigarette Pete had given him. He’d stopped shaking now, but his eyes still held their fear. We had nothing to say to one another until the moment he got up to leave. “Danke,” he said. “Danke sehr.”

“Funny that,” Nipper said when he’d gone. “Seeing him standing there with not a stitch on. Take off our uniforms and you can hardly tell the difference, can you? Not a bad bloke, for a Fritz that is.”

Related Characters: Thomas “Tommo” Peaceful (speaker), Nipper Martin , Pete Bovey

Page Number and Citation: 137-138

Explanation and Analysis:

Pete Bovey Character Timeline in Private Peaceful

The timeline below shows where the character Pete Bovey appears in Private Peaceful. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...familiar faces from their village: Nipper Martin (a “little fellow” who was a turnip farmer), Pete Bovey (a well-built thatcher and avid cider drinker), and Les James (a rat-catcher). They have... (full context)

Tommo’s turn for patrol comes, and he is slated to go with Charlie, Nipper Martin, Pete, Little Les, and Captain “Wilkie” Wilkes. Tommo finds he is “not so much frightened as... (full context)

When he arrives back at camp, Tommo’s good mood is shattered when Pete tells him that their new sergeant will be Sergeant Hanley. When Hanley arrives, every day... (full context)

Tommo returns to camp to find Pete alone in the tent. He, too, was very lucky in the attack. Pete gives Tommo... (full context)

Pete tells everyone that the Germans have got them completely surrounded, and that “all hell’s broken... (full context)

...and orders the men to leave the dugout. Unwillingly, each man goes over the top. Pete tries to convince Charlie to join them, but Charlie says that he meant what he... (full context)