Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Henry William Peacock, (11 February 1893 – March 1955) was a decorated British Officer commanding

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

operations behind Japanese lines in Burma during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He had previously served in Burma for many years as Deputy Conservator of Forests, and Game Warden.

Early life

Edgar Peacock was born in Nagpur, India on 11 February 1893. He entered the

Indian Forest Service The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is the premier forest service of India. .The IFS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) & the Indian Police Service (IPS). It was constituted in the year 1966 un ...

in 1914, training at the Forest Research Institute College at

Dehra Dun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, ...

and, upon graduation, took up his first posting in the

Hinthada Hinthada (; formerly Henzada) is a town located on the Irrawaddy River in Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. It is the principal town of Hinthada Township and Hinthada District. The trade of locally grown rice and grain goes through the port of Hinthad ...

area. In 1924, Peacock married his wife, Geraldine, in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, and then returned to his work as a Forest Officer. This included lengthy tours in the jungle on which his wife and new baby, Joy, accompanied him. In 1932, Peacock retired from the forestry service and travelled to England with his family. They stayed there for six months while he wrote a book, ''A Game Book for Burma and Adjoining Territories'', which was published in 1933 by H F & G Witherby and he also wrote a number of articles for '' The Field'' magazine, on both hunting and photographing game.

War Service

Peacock served with SOE during the Second World War, largely in Burma where he commanded P-Force in the Chindwin River area, assisting 20 Division of IV Corps. P Force was withdrawn just before the Japanese attack on India in March 1944. After further training in Ceylon at the end of 1944, Peacock led Otter area of Operation Character, with responsibility for the foothills and the road leading east from Toungoo towards Bawlake. Here, his responsibility was to "train, plan and lead the Karens into their first action and show them how to do it." During operations on the Chindwin front, Peacock was awarded a Military Cross after an incident in which one of his officers, Captain J Gibson, was seriously wounded by a grenade. Peacock crossed through enemy lines to get help before immediately crossing back through enemy lines to collect Captain Gibson, and then crossing through enemy lines for a third time to bring him to safety. He received a bar to his MC for later work in leading his guerilla force to destroy a column of Japanese soldiers moving through the area. After the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for "outstanding courage and resource" in turning "a small hunted party into the controlling force" in his area of operations.

Medals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peacock, Edgar 1893 births 1955 deaths Imperial Forestry Service officers British Special Operations Executive personnel British Army personnel of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Recipients of the Military Cross Burmese military personnel of World War II British expatriates in British Burma