William Peyton General Sir William Eliot Peyton KCB KCVO DSO ( 7 May 1866 - 14 November 1931 ) was a British soldier , a general of the First World War who fought in several other wars . 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 . Career . In 1885 , Peyton enlisted in the ranks in the 7th Dragoon Guards , a regiment which 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 , 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 . In the Sudan he was again Mentioned in Despatches , and received the Distinguished Service Order . He was also awarded the Order of the Medjidieh , Fourth Class . He 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 . He passed the Army ' s Staff College in December , 1901 . From 1903 until 1907 Peyton commanded the 15th Hussars , being granted the brevet rank of colonel in 1905 . In 1907 he 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 was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order ( CVO ) , and from July 1912 was Military Secretary to the Commander - in - Chief , India . He 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 Division Territorial Force . Promoted to major - general in 1914 ( first as temporary promotion , from October as substantive rank ) , 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 . 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 . 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 . In May 1916 , after success as a combat commander , Peyton was transferred to become Sir Douglas Haig ’ s Military Secretary in Flanders , remaining with Haig until March 1918 . The post was at the heart of the operation of the management of appointments , promotions , removals , honours and awards of the British Expeditionary Force . He was knighted in 1917 , being made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order ( KCVO ) when King George V visited the troops in the field . In April and May 1918 , Peyton nominally commanded the Fifth Army , but it had been defeated on The Somme in March 1918 and renamed the Fourth Army , so there was no Fifth Army , and the command was a reserve HQ at Cécy - en - Ponthieu . On 23 May , the Fifth Army was reconstituted and given to Sir William Birdwood , and for six weeks ( as a temporary lieutenant - general ) Peyton took command of X Corps , but 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 British Army ' s 40th Infantry Division during operations in France and Flanders , leading it through the Hundred Days advance through Flanders . 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 " . Peyton next returned to India , to command the United Province district and the 3rd Indian Division at Meerut between 1920 and 1922 . He was promoted substantive lieutenant - general in 1921 . He was next posted as Military Secretary to the Secretary of State for War , from 1922 to 1926 , and as Commander - in - Chief of the Scottish Command , 1926 to 1930 . This was his last post before retirement in 1930 , and in 1927 he was promoted general . A member of the Army and Navy Club , he died there suddenly on 14 November 1931 . He is buried in Brompton Cemetery , London . 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 . With Mabel , he had one daughter , Ela Violet Ethel . After his wife ' s death in 1901 , Peyton married again , in 1903 , Gertrude , the 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 . External links .