View source for Frederick Peake

{{Short description|British Army officer and police officer (1886–1970)}}
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{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix = [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]]
|name= Frederick Peake
|honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG|CBE|CStJ}}
|image= Frederick Peake portrait.jpg
|image_size= 
|alt= 
|caption= Peake wearing traditional Jordanian [[Keffiyeh]]
|nickname= Peake Pasha
|birth_date= {{birth date|1886|06|12|df=yes}}
|birth_place= [[Epsom]], England
|death_date= {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|03|30|1886|06|12}}
|death_place= [[Kelso, Scottish Borders|Kelso]], Scotland
|placeofburial= 
|allegiance= United Kingdom
|branch= [[British Army]]
|serviceyears= 1906–1939
|rank= [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]]
|servicenumber= 
|unit= [[Imperial Camel Corps]]<br/>[[Royal Flying Corps]]<br/>Sudan Camel Corps<br/>[[Duke of Wellington's Regiment]]
|commands= [[Arab Legion]]
|battles= [[First World War]]
|awards= [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]]<br/>[[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<br/>[[Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)|Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John]]<br/>[[Order of the Nile|Officer of the Order of the Nile]] (Egypt)<br/>Order of Istiqlal (Jordan)
|relations= 
|laterwork= Policeman, author
}}
[[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] '''Frederick Gerard Peake''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|CMG|CBE|CStJ}} (12 June 1886 – 30 March 1970), known as '''Peake Pasha''', was a [[British Army]] and police officer and creator of the [[Arab Legion]].

==Military career==
The son of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Peake, of [[Melton Mowbray]], Peake was born at [[Epsom]] on 12 June 1886. He attended [[Stubbington House School]], [[Fareham]],<ref name=who>'PEAKE, Frederick Gerard', in ''Who Was Who'' (A. & C. Black); online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014, [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U57941, PEAKE, Frederick Gerard]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}. Retrieved 27 July 2016 (subscription site)</ref> and graduated from the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]] in 1906, being commissioned into the [[Duke of Wellington's Regiment]]. He served in India from 1908 to 1913.

During the [[First World War]], Peake served with the [[Royal Flying Corps]] in Salonica, and was also an officer serving with the [[Imperial Camel Corps]], part of the British Imperial Egyptian Army, seeing action in the Darfur Expedition. In 1917 he was awarded the [[Order of the Nile]], Fourth Class.<ref name=who/><ref>''[[The London Gazette]]'', 31 August 1917</ref> He served for a time under [[T. E. Lawrence|Lawrence of Arabia]].

In September 1920 Peake, then a captain, left the Imperial Camel Corps to report on the security situation in [[Emirate of Transjordan|Transjordan]]. Security was found to be inadequate, and in October the same year Peake, by then promoted to lieutenant colonel, was ordered by the [[Mandate for Palestine|High Commissioner of Palestine]] to form two small police forces:

# The Mobile Force, 100 men to guard the [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]–[[Amman]] road.
# 50 men to support the British [[District Officer]] posted to [[Al Karak]], east of the [[Dead Sea]].

During the summers of 1921 and 1923, Peake organised the 150-man Reserve Mobile Force, which formed the nucleus of the [[Arab Legion]]. This force was made up of Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Chechens and Circassians, armed with German rifles. Due to increasing regional skirmishes, the Reserve Mobile Force was increased in strength to 750 officers and men. This reorganised force thwarted [[Wahhabi]] raids in 1922 and the [[Adwan Rebellion]] in 1923. Peake became a major general in the army of the [[Emirate of Transjordan]].

==Private life==
In 1937, Peake married Elspeth MacLean Ritchie, younger daughter of Norman Ritchie, of [[St Boswells]], and they had one daughter.<ref name=who/><ref>[http://www.thepeerage.com/p12479.htm Frederick Peake] at ThePeerage.com</ref> In 1939, he retired and was succeeded by [[John Bagot Glubb]]. To the Jordanians he became known as "Peake Pasha".

In retirement, Peake settled at Hawkslee, St Boswells, Roxburghshire, his wife's home village. She died in 1967.<ref name=who/> His daughter, Julia Grace Peake, was born in 1941. She married firstly David Renwick Grant, and secondly the late [[Sir Hugh Arbuthnot, 7th Baronet]].

==Selected publications==
*{{cite book|last= Peake |first=F.|author-link=Frederick Peake  |title= A history of Trans-Jordan and its tribes |url=https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_isl_history-trans-jordan-tribes_DS1544B551934_vol1-5254 |year=1934 |volume=1 |location=Amman}} 
*{{cite book|last= Peake |first=F.|author-link=Frederick Peake  |title= A history of Trans-Jordan and its tribes |url=https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_isl_history-trans-jordan-tribes_DS1544B551934_vol2-5255  |year=1934 |volume=2 |location=Amman}} 
* ''A History of Jordan and its Tribes'', University of Miami Press, 1958<ref name=who/>
* ''Change at St Boswells (the story of a border village)'', John McQueen and Son, 1961<ref name=who/>
* ''Arab Command. The Biography of Lieutenant-Colonel F. G. Peake Pasha C.M.G., C.B.E.'', Hutchinson & Co., 1942<ref name=who/>

==References==
{{reflist}}
*James Lunt, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35429 ‘Peake, Frederick Gerard (1886–1970)’], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005. Retrieved 4 June 2010

==External links==
*[http://homepages.force9.net/rothwell/trans-jo.htm The Arab Legion]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{NPG name|name=Frederick Gerard Peake}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peake, Frederick Gerard}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:British generals]]
[[Category:Duke of Wellington's Regiment officers]]
[[Category:Egyptian military personnel]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Jordanian generals]]
[[Category:British colonial army officers]]
[[Category:Pashas]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:People educated at Stubbington House School]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:Royal Flying Corps officers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Surrey]]
[[Category:Palestine Police Force officers]]