In 1885, Peyton enlisted in the ranks in the 7th Dragoon Guards,[3] a regiment that his father had commanded between 1871 and 1876.[4] The explanation of this was his failure to pass the entrance examination of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[4] Having risen to sergeant, Peyton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 7th Dragoon Guards on 18 June 1887,[3][4][5] and promoted lieutenant in 1890.[6] He was appointed regimental adjutant in 1892.[7][8] In 1896 he transferred to the 15th Hussars and was promoted captain.[3][9]
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 chief of staff of the 1st Mounted DivisionTerritorial Force (TF).[4][26] Promoted to major general in 1914 (first as temporary promotion, from October as substantive rank),[27][28] he commanded the 2nd Mounted Division TF on the Gallipoli Peninsula, seeing action on 21 August 1915 and taking part in the final evacuation of 19 December 1915.[3] The division suffered severe casualties at Suvla.[4] 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.[3][29][30][31] For rescuing the shipwrecked British prisoners of HMS Tara 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.[3][32]
In May 1916, after success as a combat commander, Peyton was transferred to become Sir Douglas Haig's Military Secretary in Flanders,[33] remaining with Haig until March 1918.[4][34] The post was at the heart of the operation of the management of appointments, promotions, removals, honours and awards of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).[4] In December of the 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.[35]
In April and May 1918, Peyton nominally commanded the Reserve Army. 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.[4][37] On 23 May, the Fifth Army was reconstituted and given to Sir William Birdwood, and for six weeks (as a temporary lieutenant general)[38] Peyton took command of X Corps, though his corps was held back from the fighting.[4] 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.[4][39][40]
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.[3][4]
Peyton next returned to India, to command the United Province district and the 3rd Indian Division at Meerut between 1920 and 1922.[3][41][42][43] He was promoted substantive lieutenant general in 1921.[3][44]
A member of the Army and Navy Club, he died there suddenly on 14 November 1931.[4] 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.[4]
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.[3][49] With Mabel, he had one daughter, Ela Violet Ethel.[50] 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.[3]
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.[52]
^ abCox, 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)."
^"15th The King's Hussars". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 28 October 2005. Retrieved 9 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^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
^ abConqueror A1 at william1.co.uk (accessed 19 January 2008)
^STEVENSON, Lieut-Col Sir Edward Daymonde in Who's Who 1958 (London, A. & C. Black, 1958)
^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.
