Captain Peachey and the mysterious force

Times Past

Jonathan Smyth

This is the second column on the Peachey family from Ballyconnell. It looks at Captain Peachey.

Born on July 17, 1856, in Palamcottah, Madras, India, Alice Katharine le Fleming (Hughes) would marry Dr Allan Thomas Peachey MRCS, of Ballyconnell, at St Mary’s Chapel, Rydal, Westmoreland, in October 1894. Two years later, on May 23, 1896, Alice Peachey gave birth to her first-born, a son, born on the day of her husband’s inquest. She named him Allan Thomas George Cumberland Peachey. The baby’s father was Dr Peachey, whom you may recall from last week’s column, had succumbed to the side effects of an illness contracted in Australia during his early medical career from which he never fully recovered. He had been well-liked by the people of Ballyconnell and Belturbet, according to the Cavan Weekly News, and had been the Medical Officer for the Ballyconnell Dispensary District of the Bawnboy Union from October 1890 until his sad and untimely death on May 22, 1896.

Allan Jnr and his mother continued to live at the family home, Rosebank House, for another few years, until he moved to England to complete his education at Haileybury and Trinity College, Cambridge. His future professional career lay in the navy where he rose through with ease through the ranks.

Naval medals

On June 19, 2013, a collection of naval medals came up for auction. It turned out, that they once belonged to Captain Allan Thomas George Cumberland Peachey, Royal Navy. Noonan’s of Mayfair auctioned them for £6,000. To demonstrate the validity and importance of the medals, the auctioneers at Noonan’s provided excerpts from newspapers, which told of Captain Peachey’s endeavours during the 1930s and 1940s.

During his naval career, Allan Peachey became a close friend of Louis Mountbatten who was assassinated in 1979 at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, shortly before what would have been his 80th birthday. Peachey’s career saw him serve in the First World War, the Second World War, Palestine, the Suez and in later years had some involvement with NATO. The naval records of Allan Peachey are available to researchers at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

In September 1914, Peachey enlisted in the Navy as a cadet and in May of the following year he was assigned to HMS King George V as a midshipman and took part in action at the battle of Jutland. Towards the end of the Great War, Peachey became flag lieutenant to Admiral John de Roebeck and then, in 1926, became lieutenant commander. In 1929 he served on the gunboat HMS Bee, sailing to China and the Mediterranean. Peachey’s promotion to commander was in 1933.

In October 1935, his mother died, aged 79 years, and on December 16, 1935, the Irish Press reported that her will had been read, adding, Mrs A.K. Peachey, formerly of 61 Belgrave Road, London, the widow of Dr. Peachey, Ballyconnell, had left £4,028.

Greek medal

Peachey was on the battleship ‘Royal Oak’ as an executive officer when it was fired on during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Four years later, he attained the role of captain and in the Second World War, he commanded various ships, including, ‘HMS Queen of Bermuda’, the ‘Delhi’, the ‘Enterprise’, and the ‘Royal Sovereign’. For the part played by the English Navy and the Merchant Navy in bringing the King of Hellenes safely to England in 1942, this Greek King honoured his rescuers, with a medal known as the ‘Order of George I Greece’. Peachey was amongst the recipients of the Greek medal.

Italy

Following the overthrow of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, the Italian Fascist Grand Council reckoned it was time to make peace with the Allied Forces. However, a ground invasion of Italy by the Allied Forces was seen to be the most direct route to knocking Italy out of the war.

On September 9, 1943, the Allies moved in on Salerno, which they saw as a handy gateway into the country. That said, Hitler’s regiments were already in situ and the Allied Forces came under heavy fire from them. But Allied airpower and naval strength soon halted Hitler’s winning streak.

On May 23, 1944, the London Gazette announced that Peachey was in receipt of a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his part in the landings at Salerno. An excerpt from recommendations at the time stated: ‘Officers and men engaged in the landing at Salerno, which was conducted with outstanding skill… success was achieved but only after heavy fighting, and after many vigorous counter attacks by the enemy from prepared shore positions, from the air and from the sea.’

Force W

Force W sounds like something from an Ian Fleming novel and yet it was a real unit under the commandership of Captain Allan Peachey. A short two-minute film from the Imperial War Museum archive shows Louis Mountbatten inspecting a parade of the Royal Navy’s ‘Force W’ in Singapore in 1946. ‘Force W’, according to the museum’s records, was the first of three ‘amphibious naval forces’ namely W, Y, and Z.

Force W, under the command of Peachey, was ‘intended to carry the assault element of a division during the landings against Malaya’ in Operation Zipper according to Imperial War Museum files.

Illegal immigrants

His final years in the navy brought him to Palestine and the Levant where he served from 1947 to 1948. The London Gazette on January 7, 1949, reported on Peachey being awarded a CBE while Commodore in the Levant, adding that he performed his duties with ‘determination and fearlessness’ in the ‘interception of ships carrying illegal immigrants to Palestine’ and praised the way he oversaw the ‘smooth working’ of the port of Haifa during the withdrawal of British troops.

In 1950, Captain Allan Peachey retired from active duty and went to work for the British Embassy’s, Cairo branch, where he remained until 1954.

In terms of family life, Allan married Nina Muriel Paterson née Sutherland in Knightsbridge, London, on 10 December 1929. They did not have any children according to the website, Unit Histories.

On March 15, 1967, Allan Peachey the Ballyconnell born naval Captain died in Westminster, London. Among the many medals awarded to Peachey there was a CBE and a Legion of Merit from the USA.