Peter Strickland (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir Edward Peter Strickland, (3 August 1869 – 24 June 1951) was a British Army officer who commanded the 1st Division during the First World War.

Military career
Educated at Warwick School, Strickland was commissioned into the Norfolk Regiment in 1888 and served in Upper Burma in 1888/1889, on the Dongola expedition in 1896, and fought at the Battle of Atbara and the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. He served in North Nigeria from 1906 and commanded the North Nigeria Regiment in 1909.

He served in the First World War as Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion the Manchester Regiment from 1914 and as commander of the Jullundur Brigade from early 1915, leading it at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and at the Second Battle of Ypres. He continued his war service as commander of the 98th Brigade from late 1915 and then as General Officer Commanding 1st Division on the Western Front from 1916 until the end of the war, leading it at the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Lys.

After the war Strickland became commander of the Western Division of the British Army of the Rhine, and then General Officer Commanding 6th Division in Ireland, in which role he survived an assassination attempt by the Irish Republican Army in Cork in September 1920 before assuming the additional responsibilities of military governor (under Martial law) for the counties of Munster, Kilkenny and Wexford in January 1921. He was appointed General Officer Commanding 2nd Division in 1923 and General Officer Commanding the British Troops in Egypt in 1927 before retiring in 1931.

From 1917 to 1946 Strickland was the Colonel of the Norfolk Regiment.

Family
In 1918, Strickland married Barbara Cresswell ( Ffolkes); they had a daughter, and there were two daughters from his wife's previous marriage, including Billa Harrod. Barbara, Lady Strickland, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1923.

Honours

 * Distinguished Service Order – 1899
 * Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George – 1913
 * Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath – 1919 (Companion (CB) 1917)
 * Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire – 1923
 * Third class, Order of Medjidie – 1902 – in recognition of valuable services rendered to Hs Highness the Khedive of Egypt