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26
quintinshill rail disaster
LT. COLONEL WILLIAM CARMICHAEL PEEBLES
dso
td
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In May 1918, Lieutenant Colonel Peebles handed over command of 1/7RS to
Lieutenant Colonel Ewing.
Peebles was a remarkable man by any standards.
He
was a member of the major family firm of Peebles Engineering in Leith.
He had been commissioned into the then 5th Volunteer Battalion in 1894,
and assumed command of the 7th (Territorial) Battalion, as it had then
become, in 1910. He mobilised the Battalion in August 1914, and commanded
it (as the 1st/7th Battalion) in Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and France. Of all
the battles in which 1/7RS was engaged while he was in command, he only
missed the Third Battle of Gaza, when he was on home leave. A man of
legendary bravery, commanding his Battalion from the front, he was awarded
the
DSO
and Bar, the Serbian Order of the White Eagle and several times
‘Mentioned in Dispatches’
– additionally he was described as always being the
best turned-out man in the Battalion!
It is most unlikely that any other British
Commanding Officer inWorldWar I mobilised his Battalion on 4August 1914
and remained in unbroken command of it through to May 1918, including
three years of almost continuous operations.