Cyrus Wesley Peck
Encyclopedia
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
and Bar
Medal bar
A medal bar or medal clasp is a thin metal bar attached to the ribbon of a military decoration, civil decoration, or other medal. It is most commonly used to indicate the campaign or operation the recipient received the award for, and multiple bars on the same medal are used to indicate that the...
(26 April 1871 – 27 September 1956) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
recipient of the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
forces. Peck was one of seven Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 2 September 1918. The other six Victoria Cross recipients were Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney
Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney
Private Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney VC DCM MM was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
, William Metcalf
William Metcalf
William Metcalf may refer to :* William Henry Metcalf , World War I soldier* William Metcalf , American steel producer...
, John Francis Young
John Francis Young
John Francis Young VC , was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
, Walter Leigh Rayfield
Walter Leigh Rayfield
Walter Leigh Rayfield VC was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Rayfield was one of seven Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on...
, Bellenden Hutcheson and Arthur George Knight
Arthur George Knight
Arthur George Knight VC , was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Knight was one of seven Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 2...
.
Early life
Peck was born in Hopewell Hill, New BrunswickHopewell Hill, New Brunswick
Hopewell Hill is a Canadian rural community in Albert County, New Brunswick.It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Right Honourable Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC , KC , LL.B , who was the eleventh Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930 to October 23,...
, the family had immigrated from New England in 1763.
Peck was 16 years old when his father moved the family to New Westminster, British Columbia
New Westminster, British Columbia
New Westminster is an historically important city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and is a member municipality of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It was founded as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia ....
. Peck took military training and crossed the Atlantic to join the British Army then changed his mind. He returned to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and would volunteer for the Boer War. He was not accepted for duty. He next moved to Klondike, Yukon
Klondike, Yukon
The Klondike is a region of the Yukon in northwest Canada, east of the Alaska border. It lies around the Klondike River, a small river that enters the Yukon from the east at Dawson....
. When First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
began he was in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and home to some 12,815 people .-History:...
and working in a salmon cannery.
First World War
In 1914 he went overseas as a Major in the 30th Battalion. Then in May 1915 Peck joined as a Lieutenant ColonelLieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were divided into field formation in France, where they were organized first into separate divisions and later joined together into a single...
. He was 47 years old. He became the commanding officer of the Regiment during the Battle of the Somme (1916)
Battle of the Somme (1916)
The Battle of the Somme , also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between 1 July and 14 November 1916 in the Somme department of France, on both banks of the river of the same name...
. Peck was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(DSO) in the 1917 King's Birthday Honours; a Bar
Medal bar
A medal bar or medal clasp is a thin metal bar attached to the ribbon of a military decoration, civil decoration, or other medal. It is most commonly used to indicate the campaign or operation the recipient received the award for, and multiple bars on the same medal are used to indicate that the...
to the DSO, for which the citation in the London Gazette
London Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
read, "During an attack he showed fine courage and leadership. He led his battalion, under difficulties caused by heavy mist, to its final objective, nearly three miles, after severe fighting. He personally led his men in an attack on nests of machine guns protecting the enemy's guns, which he captured. Some of the guns were of 8-inch calibre."; was Mentioned in Despatches five times; and was wounded twice.
In 1917 he was a soldier candidate elected in the khaki election
Khaki Election
In British political history, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was returned to office with an increased majority over the Liberal Party...
of 1917. He was elected in 1917
Canadian federal election, 1917
The 1917 Canadian federal election was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Canada. Described by historian Michael Bliss as the "most bitter election in Canadian history", it was fought mainly over the issue of conscription...
as a Unionist
Unionist Party (Canada)
The Unionist Party was formed in 1917 by Members of Parliament in Canada who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War....
for the riding of Skeena
Skeena (electoral district)
Skeena was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1917 to 2004.-Geography:This was a rural, mostly wilderness, riding in northwestern B.C...
. He was defeated in 1921
Canadian federal election, 1921
The Canadian federal election of 1921 was held on December 6, 1921 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader...
. In 1924
British Columbia general election, 1924
The British Columbia general election of 1924 was the sixteenth general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on May 10, 1924, and held on June 20, 1924...
, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....
for the riding of The Islands
The Islands
The Islands was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It first appeared on the hustings in the 1890 provincial election and lasted until it was integrated into the new riding Nanaimo and The Islands as of the 1941 election.- Demographics :-Notable MLAs:This...
. A member of the British Columbia Conservative Party
British Columbia Conservative Party
The British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...
, he was reelected in 1928
British Columbia general election, 1928
The British Columbia general election of 1928 was the seventeenth general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on June 7, 1928, and held on July 18, 1928...
.
In 1930, the Gulf Islands Ferry Company purchased the Canadian Pacific car ferry Island Princess
Island Princess (steamboat)
The steamboat Daily operated in the early 1900s as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. In later years, Daily was renamed Island Princess and later Cy Peck.-Construction:...
and renamed it MV Cy Peck in honour of Peck, who was also the local MLA. The MV Cy Peck remained in service until 1966.
On 2 September 1918 at Cagnicourt
Cagnicourt
Cagnicourt is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais département in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village located 11 miles southeast of Arras at the junction of the D13 with the D14E.-Population:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(the Drocourt-Queant Line), when Lieutenant Colonel Peck's command, after capturing the first objective, was held up by enemy machine-gun fire, he went forward and made a personal reconnaissance under very heavy fire. Returning, he reorganized his battalion and pushed them forward. He then went out, under the most intense artillery and machine-gun fire and intercepted the tanks, giving them the necessary directions, pointing out where they were to make for, and thus paving the way for an infantry battalion to push forward. To this battalion he subsequently gave the necessary support. The full citation was published in a supplement to the London Gazette of 12 November 1918 (dated 15 November 1918):
Following his political career he was appointed to the Canadian Pension Commission and held this post until 1941. He died 27 September 1956 of a heart attack.
Grave/memorial at New Westminster Crematorium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Range 23. Block 54. Lot B. Headstone.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Canadian War Museum
Canadian War Museum
The Canadian War Museum is Canada’s national museum of military history. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, the museum covers all facets of Canada’s military past, from the first recorded instances of death by armed violence in Canadian history several thousand years ago to the country’s most recent...
(Ottawa, Canada).
External links
- The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess (Lieutenant-Colonel Cyrus Wesley Peck entry)
- News Item (Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) regimental museum VC exhibition)
- Legion Magazine-The Magnificent Seven
- Peck's Medals at the Canadian War Museuem