William Peyton

{{about||the Virginia lawyer, politician and slave owner|William M. Peyton}}

{{Infobox military person

| name = Sir William Peyton

| image = William Eliot Peyton - Delhi Herald.jpg

| caption = William Peyton as Delhi Herald Extraordinary in 1911

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1866|05|07|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Wellington, Tamil Nadu, Madras, British Indiahttps://web.archive.org/web/20250313162750/https://www.eliotsofporteliot.com/familytree/getperson.php?personID=I00679&tree=eliot1

| death_date = {{death date and age|1931|11|14|1866|05|07|df=yes}}

| death_place = Army and Navy Club, London

| placeofburial =

| allegiance = United Kingdom

| branch = British Army

| serviceyears = 1885–1930

| rank = General

| unit =

| commands = Scottish Command (1926–1930)
3rd Indian Division (1920–1922)
40th Infantry Division (1918–1919)
X Corps (1918)
Reserve Army (1918)
Western Frontier Force in Egypt (1916)
2nd Mounted Division (1914–1915)
Meerut Cavalry Brigade (1908–1912)
15th Hussars (1903–1907)

| battles = Mahdist War
Second Boer War
First World War

| awards = Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in Despatches (6)

| relations =

| laterwork =

}}

General Sir William Eliot Peyton, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|KCVO|DSO}} (7 May 1866 – 14 November 1931) was a British Army officer who served as Military Secretary to the British Expeditionary Force from 1916 to 1918. He was Delhi Herald of Arms Extraordinary at the time of the Delhi Durbar of 1911.

Early life

The third son of Colonel John Peyton, commanding officer of the 7th Dragoon Guards, Peyton was educated at Brighton College.PEYTON, General Sir William Eliot, in Who Was Who 1929–1940 (London, A. & C. Black, 1967 reprint: {{ISBN|0-7136-0171-X}})[http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/donkey/peyton.htm William Eliot Peyton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080128225556/http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/donkey/peyton.htm |date=28 January 2008 }} at the web site of the CENTRE FOR FIRST WORLD WAR STUDIES online at bham.ac.uk (accessed 19 January 2008)

Early military career

In 1885, Peyton enlisted in the ranks in the 7th Dragoon Guards, a regiment that his father had commanded between 1871 and 1876. The explanation of this was his failure to pass the entrance examination of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Having risen to sergeant, Peyton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 7th Dragoon Guards on 18 June 1887,{{London Gazette|issue=25710|page=3285|date=17 June 1887}} and promoted lieutenant in 1890.{{London Gazette|issue=26060|page=3242|date=10 June 1890}} He was appointed regimental adjutant in 1892.{{London Gazette|issue=26299|page=3590|date=21 June 1892}}{{London Gazette|issue=26730|page=2253|date=14 April 1896}} In 1896 he transferred to the 15th Hussars and was promoted captain.{{London Gazette|issue=26728|page=2162|date=7 April 1896}}

He was seconded to the Egyptian Army and saw service with the Dongola Expeditionary Force in 1896,{{London Gazette|issue=26732|page=2388|date=21 April 1896}} and was mentioned in despatches,{{London Gazette|issue=26791|page=6005|date=3 November 1896}} then in the Sudan in 1897 and 1898, where he was dangerously wounded and his horse killed under him by a spear. In the Sudan he was again mentioned in despatches,{{London Gazette|issue=27009|pages=5728–5729|date=30 September 1898}} and received the Distinguished Service Order.{{London Gazette|issue=27023|page=6689|date=15 November 1898}} He was also awarded the Order of the Medjidieh, Fourth Class.{{London Gazette|issue=27069|page=2272|date=7 April 1899}}

Peyton fought next in South Africa, 1899–1900, where he served with Alexander Thorneycroft's mounted infantry, was promoted major and brevet lieutenant colonel,{{London Gazette|issue=27306|pages=2704–2705|date=19 April 1901}} again mentioned in despatches,{{London Gazette|issue=27282|page=966|date=8 February 1901}} and received the Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps, but his service was cut short by illness and he was invalided back to England. He passed the army's Staff College in December 1901.

In October 1903 Peyton took command of the 15th Hussars,{{London Gazette|issue=27607|page=6370|date=20 October 1903}} which he commanded for four years, until October 1907 when he was placed on half-pay.{{London Gazette|issue=28068|page=6814|date=11 October 1907}} He had been granted the brevet rank of colonel in April 1905,

while in command of his regiment.{{London Gazette|issue=27790|page=3249|date=5 May 1905}} In October 1907 he was promoted to colonel{{London Gazette|date=5 November 1907|page=7409|issue=28075}} and, reverting to normal pay, went to India to become assistant quartermaster general, India,{{London Gazette|issue=28108|page=971|date=11 February 1908}} and, as a temporary brigadier general, to command the Meerut Cavalry Brigade from 1908 to 1912.{{London Gazette|issue=28174|page=6450|date=4 September 1908}}

In India, he served as Delhi Herald of Arms Extraordinary at the Coronation Durbar held on 12 December 1911,Cox, Noel, "A New Zealand Heraldic Authority?" in John Campbell-Kease (ed), Tribute to an Armorist: Essays for John Brooke-Little to mark the Golden Jubilee of The Coat of Arms, London, The Heraldry Society, 2000, pp. 93, 101: "Two heralds, with ceremonial rather than heraldic responsibilities, were appointed for the Delhi Durbar in 1911 ... Delhi Herald (Brigadier-General William Eliot Peyton) and Assistant Delhi Herald (Captain the Honourable Malik Mohammed Umar Haiyat Khan)." and was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order,{{London Gazette|issue=28559|pages=9363–9364|date=8 December 1911}} and from July 1912 was military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, India.{{London Gazette|issue=28638|page=6285|date=23 August 1912}}{{London Gazette|issue=28821|page=3169|date=14 April 1914}}{{London Gazette|issue=28841|page=4801|date=19 June 1914}}

First World War

File:Peyton and Bacon at Calais 1917 IWM Q 2491.jpg waiting on the quayside at Calais for the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary, June 1917]]

Peyton returned to England in 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War and took up a new post as GSO1, or chief of staff, of the 1st Mounted Division, a Territorial Force (TF) formation.{{London Gazette|issue=28879|page=6686|date=25 August 1914}} Promoted to major general in 1914 (first as temporary promotion, from October as substantive rank),{{London Gazette|issue=28899|page=7220|date=11 September 1914}}{{London Gazette|issue=28961|page=8884|date=3 November 1914}} he commanded the 2nd Mounted Division TF on the Gallipoli Peninsula, seeing action on 21 August 1915 and later taking part in the final evacuation of Allied forces from Gallipoli on 19 December 1915. The division suffered severe casualties at Suvla.

Peyton then commanded the Western Frontier Force in Egypt in 1916, leading an expedition against the Senussi and re-occupying Sidi Barrani and Sollum, again being mentioned in despatches.{{London Gazette|issue=29578|page=4701|date=12 May 1916}}{{London Gazette|issue=29632|supp=y|pages=6185–6190|date=20 June 1916}}{{London Gazette|issue=32155|supp=y|page=12118|date=7 December 1920}} For rescuing the shipwrecked British prisoners of {{HMS|Tara|1914|6}} from Bir Hakkim (by a force of armoured cars led by Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster) he received the special thanks of the Admiralty and was again mentioned in despatches.{{London Gazette|issue=29455|supp=y|page=1195|date=28 January 1916}}

In May 1916, after success as a combat commander, Peyton was transferred to the Western Front to become the military secretary to General Sir Douglas Haig.{{London Gazette|issue=29594|supp=y|page=5165|date=23 May 1916}} remaining with Haig until March 1918.{{London Gazette|issue=30676|supp=y|page=5562|date=7 May 1918}} The post was at the heart of the operation of the management of appointments, promotions, removals, honours and awards of the BEF. In December of that year he was granted the colonelcy of the 15th The King's Hussars, holding the position until their merger with the 19th Hussars in 1922, and thereafter the colonelcy of the combined 15th/19th Hussars until his death.{{cite web|url=http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15h.htm |title=15th The King's Hussars |publisher=regiments.org |access-date=9 February 2017 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051028151025/http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15h.htm |archive-date=28 October 2005 }}{{London Gazette|issue=29875|page=12484|date=22 December 1916}}

Peyton was knighted in 1917, being made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order when King George V visited the troops in the field.{{London Gazette|issue=30216|page=7912|date=3 August 1917}}

File:WilliamPeytonBrompton01.jpg

In April and May 1918, Peyton nominally commanded the Reserve Army. The Fifth Army had been defeated on the Somme in March 1918 and taken over by the Fourth Army, and the former Fifth Army staff formed a reserve HQ at Crécy-en-Ponthieu.Major A. F. Becke, History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 4 (1944, reprinted 2007) p. 111. On 23 May, the Fifth Army was reconstituted and given to General Sir William Birdwood, and for six weeks (as a temporary lieutenant general){{London Gazette|issue=30676|supp=y|page=5565|date=7 May 1918}} Peyton took command of X Corps, though his corps was held back from the fighting. However, from 3 July 1918 until March 1919 he returned to active service as commander of the 40th Infantry Division during operations in France and Flanders, leading it through the Hundred Days advance through Flanders.{{London Gazette|issue=31431|supp=y|page=8371|date=1 July 1919}}{{London Gazette|issue=32147|supp=y|page=11904|date=30 November 1920}}

Peyton's feelings about his postings between May 1916 and July 1918 were expressed silently by his omitting any mention of them from his entry in Who's Who.

Post-war and final years

Peyton next returned to India, to command the United Province district and the 3rd Indian Division at Meerut between 1920 and 1922.{{London Gazette|issue=31614|supp=y|page=12983|date=21 October 1919}}{{London Gazette|issue=32254|page=2000|date=11 March 1921}}{{London Gazette|issue=32631|page=1954|date=7 March 1922}} He was promoted substantive lieutenant general in August 1921.{{London Gazette|issue=32439|supp=y|page=6830|date=29 August 1921}}

Peyton was next posted as military secretary to the Secretary of State for War, from 1922 to 1926, and as general officer commanding-in-chief of Scottish Command, a post he held from February 1926{{London Gazette|issue=33135|page=1339|date=23 February 1926}} until he relinquished it in February 1930,{{London Gazette|issue=33580|page=1051|date=18 February 1930}} during which time he had been to promoted general in June 1927.{{London Gazette|issue=33286|page=3977|date=21 June 1927}} This was his last post before retirement in June of that year.{{London Gazette|issue=33614|page=3670|date=10 June 1930}}

A member of the Army and Navy Club, he died there suddenly at the age of 65 on 14 November 1931. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, just to the north-west of the chapel.

He was unusually tall, with a height of six feet, six inches.

Family

On 27 April 1889, Peyton married Mabel Maria, daughter of late Lt-General the Hon. E. T. Gage CB, third son of Henry Gage, 4th Viscount Gage, and of Ella Henrietta Maxse, a granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Berkeley.Melville Henry de Massue, Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Anne of Exeter Volume, London, T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1907, p. 269 With Mabel, he had one daughter, Ela Violet Ethel.[http://www.william1.co.uk/wa1.htm Conqueror A1] at william1.co.uk (accessed 19 January 2008) After his wife's death in 1901, Peyton remarried in 1903 with Gertrude, daughter of Major-General A. R. Lempriere and the widow of Captain Stuart Robertson of the 14th Hussars. They had one son and his second wife died in 1916.

In 1921, Peyton's daughter Ela married Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Daymonde Stevenson KCVO (1895–1958) and she died in 1976, leaving one son. Peyton's son-in-law was Gentleman Usher of the Green Rod, 1953–1958, and Purse Bearer to the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1930–1958.STEVENSON, Lieut-Col Sir Edward Daymonde in Who's Who 1958 (London, A. & C. Black, 1958)

Freemasonry

He was Initiated in Lodge Logonier, No.2436, (England) and was made an Honorary Member of Lodge Holyrood House (St. Luke's), No.44, (Edinburgh) on 24 March 1923. He was the Grand Sword-bearer of the Grand Lodge of Scotland 1927–1928.A History of the Mason Lodge of Holyrood House (St.Luke's), No.44, holding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland with Roll of Members, 1734–1934, by Robert Strathern Lindsay, W.S., Edinburgh, 1935. Vol.II, p.720.

Honours

Mentioned in Despatches, 1896, 1898, 1900, 1915, 1916
Khedive's Medal with two clasps, 1896
Distinguished Service Order, 1898
Order of the Medjidieh, Fourth Class, conferred by the Khedive of Egypt with the authority of the Sultan of Turkey, 1899
Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps
Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1911
Commander of the Legion d'Honneur
Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1913{{London Gazette|issue=28724|page=3904|date=30 May 1913|supp=y}}
Order of the Nile, 2nd Class, 1916{{London Gazette|issue=29977|supp=y|page=2449|date=9 March 1917}}
Commandeur de l'Ordre de Leopold, 1916{{London Gazette|issue=29943|supp=y|page=1592|date=13 February 1917}}
Colonel of the 15th The King's Hussars, 10 December 1916{{London Gazette|issue=29875|page=1248|date=22 December 1916}}[http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15h.htm 15th The King's Hussars] at regiments.org (accessed 19 January 2008) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118043254/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15h.htm |date=18 January 2008 }}
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, 1917{{London Gazette|issue=30111|page=5454|date=1 June 1917|supp=y}}
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1917
Croix de Guerre (Belgium), 1918{{London Gazette|issue=30568|supp=y|pages=3093–3097|date=8 March 1918}}
Colonel of the 15th/19th The King's Hussars, 1922{{London Gazette|issue=33798|page=953|date=12 February 1932}}[http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15-19h.htm 15th/19th The King's Hussars] at regiments.org (accessed 19 January 2008) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103191714/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D15-19h.htm |date=3 January 2008 }}
Honorary Colonel of the Warwickshire Yeomanry, 17 February 1926{{London Gazette|issue=33133|page=1162|date=16 February 1926}}[http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/volmil-england/vcav/warwick.htm Warwickshire Yeomanry] at regiments.org (accessed 19 January 2008) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219213638/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/volmil-england/vcav/warwick.htm |date=19 December 2007 }}