William Peyton

General Sir William Eliot Peyton, (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 military career In 1885, Peyton enlisted in the ranks in the 7th Dragoon Guards, and promoted lieutenant in 1890. He was appointed regimental adjutant in 1892. In 1896 he transferred to the 15th Hussars and was promoted captain.

He was seconded to the Egyptian Army and saw service with the Dongola Expeditionary Force in 1896, and was mentioned in despatches, then in the Sudan in 1897 and 1898, where he was dangerously wounded and his horse killed under him by a spear. and received the Distinguished Service Order. He was also awarded the Order of the Medjidieh, Fourth Class.

Peyton fought next in South Africa, 1899–1900, where he served with Alexander Thorneycroft's mounted infantry, was promoted major and brevet lieutenant colonel, again mentioned in despatches, 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. which he commanded for four years, until October 1907 when he was placed on half-pay. He had been granted the brevet rank of colonel in April 1905, while in command of his regiment. In October 1907 he was promoted to colonel and, reverting to normal pay, went to India to become assistant quartermaster general, India, and, as a temporary brigadier general, to command the Meerut Cavalry Brigade from 1908 to 1912.

In India, he served as Delhi Herald of Arms Extraordinary at the Coronation Durbar held on 12 December 1911, and from July 1912 was military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, India.

First World War Major General Sir William Peyton and Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon 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 of the 1st Mounted Division, a Territorial Force (TF) formation. Promoted to major general in 1914 (first as temporary promotion, from October as substantive rank), he became general officer commanding (GOC) of the 2nd Mounted Division, another TF formation, which he led in the Gallipoli campaign, seeing action in August 1915 and later taking part in the final evacuation of Allied forces from Gallipoli on 19 December 1915. For rescuing the shipwrecked British prisoners of 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.

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 remaining with Haig, commander-in-chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, until March 1918. The post was at the heart of the operation of the management of appointments, promotions, removals, honours and awards of the BEF.

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.

In April and May 1918, as the German Spring Offensives were underway, Peyton nominally commanded the Reserve Army of the BEF. 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. On 23 May, the Fifth Army was reconstituted and given to General Sir William Birdwood, and for six weeks (as a temporary lieutenant general) Peyton took command of X Corps, though his corps was held back from the fighting. until March 1919, he returned to active service as GOC of the 40th Infantry Division, taking over from Major General John Ponsonby. He led the 40th, one of the most junior of the Kitchener's Army divisions, during operations in France and Belgium, leading it through the Hundred Days advance through Flanders until after the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

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. He was promoted substantive lieutenant general in 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 until he relinquished it in February 1930, during which time he had been to promoted general in June 1927. This was his last post, being placed on half-pay before retirement in June of that year.

A member of the Army and Navy Club, he died there suddenly at the age of 65 on 14 November 1931. With Mabel, he had one daughter, Ela Violet Ethel. 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.

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.

Honours Mentioned in Despatches, 1896, Order of the Nile, 2nd Class, 1916 Commandeur de l'Ordre de Leopold, 1916 Colonel of the 15th The King's Hussars, 10 December 1916 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, 1917 Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1917 Colonel of the 15th/19th The King's Hussars, 1922 Honorary Colonel of the Warwickshire Yeomanry, 17 February 1926