Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Capt

Unit : 1/5th Bn

Biography :

Educated at Merchant Taylors' School (then in the City of London), Donald Petch was in the 1st XV rugby team. He was awarded a scholarship for Hebrew to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1915. Cadet Sergeant Donald Petch was commissioned Second Lieutenant in The Leicestershire Regiment on 4.3.1915, joining 1/5th Bn in France. He was "badly shot through the arm" at the Battle of Hohenzollern Redoubt in October 1915. He was awarded the M.C. while a Captain attached to the Royal Flying Corps (L.G. 26.9.1917: "For conspicuous gallantry arid devotion to duty during a raid. When the officer commanding the assaulting companies became a casualty he assumed command and pushed forward to the third line of the enemy's trenches, which he occupied, inflicting heavy casualties upon the enemy. He organised the withdrawal of the raiding party, and later brought back wounded to our line under heavy fire, behaving throughout the operations with the utmost coolness and courage.") and Bar to the M.C. with 1/5th Bn at Bellenglise north of St Quentin on 29.9.1918 (L.G. 15.2.1919: "He and Capt. Banwell, M.C., during the advance on September 29th, 1918, led their companies in a most gallant and able manner, keeping touch in the fog and accomplishing a difficult movement. They gave each other mutual support, and in face of heavy fire stood up and signalled to each other when ready to advance, and so brought the whole line forward to the final objective."). His brother wrote a separate account to The Taylorian magazine, which read, “ For great courage and determination west of Hulloch on the night 16-17 August, 1917. When the officer commanding the assaulting companies became a casualty Capt. Petch assumed command. He organised parties and pushed forward with the raiders to the third line of the enemy trenches, occupying the hostile line and causing the enemy heavy casualties. He organised the withdrawal of the raiding party, and later, under heavy fire, aided in bringing back the wounded to our line. He behaved throughout with great coolness and courage.” He was hospitalised with a slight wound in the cheek. After the war, he returned to Cambridge and was a prominent oarsman for his College. He passed the entry exam for the Indian Civil Service in 1920 (L.G. 2.11.1920). He was a Captain in 5th Bn in December 1921.
In Burma he was Deputy Commissioner in Myaungmya Division in the late 1920s and later Commissioner in Tenasserin Division. In the Indian Civil Service's Burma List dated 1942, he was shown as working for the British Council in the Middle East. In 1946 he was Commissioner at Moulmein, and had been acting as temporary Finance Commissioner, Burma.

During the First World War there were at one time and another seven old Merchant Taylors serving in 1/5th Bn Leicestershire Regiment. Three were killed in action: William Maurice Cole MC, Percy Measures and Rev Cyril Bernard Wilson Buck MC. At the end of the war the 4 surviving officers (Godwin Edward Banwell MC*, John David Hills MC*, Donald Burman Petch MC* and John Cridlan Barrett VC) presented a trophy to the school – The 5th Leicestershire Trophy, Inter-House Athletic Sports Championship – to commemorate this fact. The trophy has since 1982 been presented to the School's 'Most improved rugby player – senior'.

The deeds of these seven OMTs (and others who served in the Battalion) are covered fully in the book ‘1/5th Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War’, by Captain J. D. Hills MC (himself an OMT) which was first published in 1919 and reprinted in 2002. Its review in The Taylorian magazine stated,
“This book claims to be a record of the progress of a territorial battalion during the war from mobilisation to demobilisation. To say that it completely attains its object is to give it less than its due. It is in reality much more. “Mutatis mutandis”, it is an epitome of the life of any of the best territorial battalions from 1914 to 1919. The reason why the majority of books on the war are unsatisfactory and untrue is that their authors are either journalists or would-be journalists. They strive to give the public what the public is supposed to want – “purple” passages, isolated incidents, lurid and harrowing descriptions – with the result that their work is already voted stale and unprofitable. In this book the author has steadfastly resisted all temptations of “ fine writing”, he has preserved his sense of proportion throughout, and has given us a plain and unvarnished account of the daily work, the joys and sorrows, the life in the line and out of it of one of the finest battalions of the first Territorial Division to cross the Channel. It is to books like this that the student of history in days to come will turn for a true account of the doings of our hard-fighting and seldom praised County Regiments. It is a pity that there are so few of them. So much for the book in general. But to us Merchant Taylors it has a much more intimate appeal, for it gives us a glimpse of the work in France of Old Boys who, a few months before, had been working and playing beside us at the School. We read how Lieut. J. C. Barrett, V.C., “literally covered with wounds,” after disposing of three enemy machine-gun posts and their teams and overcoming the bombing-parties which assailed him, extricated his men from a perilous position before he, refusing all help, made his own way back to the Aid Post. We learn how the late Second-Lieut. W. M. Cole, M.C., accompanied by his corporal, stalked a German sentry, shot him, noted his regiment for purposes of identification, and made his way back to our line under heavy machine-gun fire – a feat well described as “a very fine piece of patrol work, calling for courage, initiative and cunning of a high degree.” This gallant young officer, whom we remember with deep affection, died of wounds ten days later, on the day on which the Military Cross was awarded him. The names “A” Company (Petch) and “ C ”Company (Banwell) have a familiar ring about them, – we note with pride that these two officers – the former thrice, the latter six times wounded – together with the author of the book, are three out of the four officers of the battalion who won the MC and bar. Finally, we deduce a great deal concerning the author himself, who sailed to France with the 5th Leicestershires, and returned to England in command of their “cadre” in June 1919. He had during that time served throughout the war with his battalion and filled every possible place in it. We feel that he was the best man to write its history and that he could not have done it better.”

This page was last edited on 10.9.2019.

Date of Birth : 16.1.1897

Place of Birth : Hackney, London

Civil Occupation : Indian Civil Service

Period of Service : 1914-21

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : France & Flanders