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Honorary Colonel
PETER DONALD MACFEAT
Royal Engineers 

by 

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, BSAE, P.E., MinstRE
(September 2025) 

Figure 1. Lieutenant Peter Donald MacFeat, M.C., R.E. (c. 1917).
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum) 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

            Peter Donald MacFeat was born on 24 May 1888 in Abbotshaugh, Pollokshields, an area on the south side of Glasgow, Scotland.  His military service was a varied one, starting out in the Glasgow University Officers Training Corps, then in the Royal Engineers Special Reserve of Officers where he served with a Railway Company during the Great War of 1914-1918 and on the staff of the Chief Railway Construction Engineer.  He remained in the Reserve of Officers until 1946.[1]  

2.  FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Family Information

            Peter Donald MacFeat was the son of John MacFeat.  His family home was located at 31 Maxwell Drive in Glasgow.  Unfortunately, little is known about his family as no family tree has been found on Ancestry.com.[2] 

Early Life

            Peter matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1905 to study engineering.  He was an excellent student and very much involved with the universities Engineering Society, acting as the societies Minute Secretary during 1907 and 1908.  In April 1909 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree with Special Distinction in Engineering and Drawing.  His name appeared at least a dozen times in prize lists and in his fourth and final year he was awarded the George Harvey and Walker Prizes as top student in Engineering.[3] 

3.  COMMISSIONING AND TRAINING 

Commissioning 

            On 22 March 1910 MacFeat was appointed a 2^nd Lieutenant on the Unattached List for the Territorial Force for service with the Engineer Unit of the Glasgow University Contingent, Senior Division, Officers Training Corps (O.T.C.).[4]  This was rather an unusual way to obtain a commission, but it would indicate that he was a participant in the universities O.T.C. while he was studying engineering.  His bachelor's degree and excellent student record would ultimately result in his commission in the Royal Engineers. 

Training 

            Prior to the start of the Great War MacFeat lived in Glasgow working with the Glasgow University O.T.C. and perhaps working in some field of engineering.  On 17 July 1912 he was reassigned from the Unattached List (T.F.) and the Glasgow University Contingent O.T.C. to be a 2^nd Lieutenant (on probation) in the Corps of Royal Engineers Special Reserve of Officers.[5]  He was not placed on active service, so he was free to work in a civil capacity as an engineer.  

            During this period he attended a 4-month course in Railway Engineering,[6] a field that he had apparently developed an interest in.  This course would subsequently affect his service in the Great War. 

            On 25 May 1913 MacFeat applied for an Associate Membership in The Institution of Civil Engineers (I.C.E.) and on 24 November he was appointed an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department (P.W.D.), Nairobi, Kenya.[7]  On 2 December 1913 he was elected to be an Associate Member of the I.C.E.,[8] probably while he was enroute to Kenya. 

            After his arrival at the P.W.D. headquarters in Nairobi on 13 December 1913, MacFeat was posted as a Civil Engineer in Mombasa, about 300 miles to the southeast of the capital.  It appears that he remained in Africa until shortly before the start of the Great War.

4.  MILITARY POSTINGS AND CAMPAIGN SERVICE

Longmoor, Hampshire (1914-1915) 

            In November 1914 the 112^th Railway Company, R.E. was formed at Longmoor Camp in Hampshire.  The HQ of the regular railway troops before the war was at Longmoor and the Special Reserve Companies went there annually for training using the specialized Woolmer Instructional Military Railway. During the war, Longmoor, and subsequently part of Bordon, became the centre for all R.E. railway and road personnel and at one time also for Inland Water Transport personnel. From the outbreak of the war until the armistice, nearly 1,700 officers and 66,000 other ranks were sent overseas from this centre.[9] 

Approximately half the officers for the new railway units were provided by the British railway companies on the recommendation of the Railway Executive Committee and the other half were mainly men from overseas who had been employed on colonial and foreign railways. Some of the companies formed in 1915 drew upon a large contingent of local men.  However, as time wore on and with the major transport logistical re-structuring of 1917, the local flavor would become diluted as men were swapped around and experienced men from other army units were combed out to swell the ranks of the Railway Companies.[10] 

France (1915-1918) 

As an officer in the R.E. Special Reserve with an engineering degree and training in Railway Engineering, 2^nd Lieutenant MacFeat was a perfect candidate for posting to one of the newly formed railway construction companies.  He was posted to the 112^th Railway Company and on 15 February 1915 he and his company embarked at Southampton aboard S.S. Duchess of Argyl and they disembarked that same day at Le Havre.[11]  Immediately upon arrival in France the company began work on a railway line from Abele to Poperinghe.[12] 

Once in France, the sappers in railway companies were assigned to a Construction Train, of which there were eight in operation by mid-1915. Each Construction Train would have a complement of up to two complete Railway Companies, with a Captain as officer commanding the train. This enabled the sappers to carry both themselves and all their necessary tools and equipment to and from wherever the next work was required. The companies would pitch tents for accommodation, as required. Large-scale work would include the construction of the major stores and ammunition dump at Audruicq, ten miles from Calais. Here, and at numerous other locations such as the nearby major ammunition dump at Zeneghem Yard, there was great use of Chinese Labour and R.E. Labour Companies to prepare the ground, ready for the platelaying sappers. 

On 8 April 1915 the 112^th Railway Company suffered its first fatal casualty in France.  The man was 55657 Sapper Charles Edward Higgins who  probably was killed in an accident.  Higgins was buried at Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, France.  The company had previously lost one man, 55608 Sapper George Lawton, who had died prior to the company being deployed.[13] 

As the various campaigns and battles unfolded, R.E. Railway Companies were engaged all over the British sector, joined by Dominion R.E. Railway Companies. Close examination of the period maps bear testimony to miles of what was to be temporary track that crisscrossed the area. Howitzer Spurs, Ambulance Train Sidings, Tank Enablements and bridges were all constructed, in addition to the constant maintenance and line doubling. Work in progress was always a potential target for enemy artillery and also there were the attentions of the German Air Force to contend with. Zeneghem Yard, for instance, was a natural target and sappers from R.E. Railway Companies are recorded as having to help extinguish serious fires resulting from air raids.[14]

A primary objective was always to take standard gauge railways as close to the front as possible, to lessen the demands on light railway systems, horsed transport and manpower. For the sappers, work could mean toiling around the clock, especially where lines had been cut by shellfire. Inevitably there were casualties; analysis of the records shows that 173 men from Railway Companies lost their lives.[15] The 112^th Railway Company was fortunate. Only three of its fatal casualties occurred during the period of hostilities:[16]

55653 Sapper A.E. Reynolds (24 June 1917), buried near St. Jean-Les-Ypres, Belgium.

55398 Sapper Roland Marriner (30 July 1917), buried at Canada Farm Cemetery, Belgium.

55500 Sapper John Henry Scarth (21 October 1917), died of wounds.

Most of the men in the RE Railway Companies had enlisted for the duration of the war and were naturally keen to return home as soon as possible. However, there was still much line repair work to be done in order to restore the lines of communication now extending deeper into the areas formerly held by the Germans. The Railway Companies gradually began to be demobilised and by August 1919 the last company had laid its last sleeper.[17]  The company did lose five men in 1919 probably from the Spanish influenza epidemic.[18] 

On 1 January 1917 Lieutenant (temporary Captain) Peter Donald MacFeat, R.E. (Special Reserve) was awarded the Military Cross and was Mentioned in Despatches.[19]  On 10 April the company worked on the duplication of the Bergues to Proven section of the military railway from Bergues to Boesinghe intended to support the planned major offensive that Haig was planning, which became Third Ypres (Passchendaele).[20]  It was during the period from June to October 1917 that the company lost Sappers Reynolds, Marriner and Scarth mentioned above.  In October 1917 Lieutenant MacFeat was promoted to the substantive rank of Captain.[21] 

It appears that MacFeat left the 112^th Railway Company at some point in 1918 and was posted to the staff of the Chief Railway Construction Engineer in France and Flanders.  On 23 December 1918 he was again Mentioned in Despatches while serving as an Acting Major in this headquarters.  In 1919, during the demobilization of R.E. railway units, MacFeat was appointed an Acting Lieutenant Colonel in the Special Reserve.[22]  

5. MEDALS, AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

            For his service during the Great War MacFeat was awarded the Military Cross, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal , as shown from left to right below.  His Victory Medal would have included a Mention in Despatches oak leaf on the ribbon.

Figure 2.  Medals of the Type Awarded to Major P.D. MacFeat, R.E.
(Image from the author’s collection) 

NOTE:  The medals shown above are not those of Colonel MacFeat.  They are shown here for illustrative purposes only. 

Figure 3.  The Medal Index Card of Major Peter Donald MacFeat, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

6. POST WAR LIFE 

            MacFeat’s life after the war consisted of a lot of foreign travel and employment abroad.  His first trip was on 10 April 1920 when he sailed aboard the S.S. Naldera bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.  The ship’s manifest lists him as a Civil Engineer with an intended residence in China.  Why he listed China as his intended place of residence at this time is unknown.  It may have been that he planned on accepting an employment opportunity with a Chinese firm, which he actually did in 1921.  It appears that during the war he had remained in the employ of the Public Works Department in Kenya, a position that he resigned on 14 April 1920.[23] 

            From 1921 to 1928 MacFeat was employed as an Assistant Engineer by the Kaitan Mining Company in China.[24]  MacFeat worked at the head office of the company under the general manager, Colonel Patrick Charles Young, C.B.E.  Colonel Young also was ex-Royal Engineers. 

            The S.S. Empress of Scotland passenger manifest shows MacFeat arriving in Southampton from Quebec, Canada, via Cherbourg France on 11 August 1923.  Ancestry.com shows his traveling to Canada on many occasions, perhaps during home leave from his job in China.  The manifest shows his home address as 20 Lansdowne Crescent in Glasgow.  It also lists him as a “Civil Engineer” with China as his intended country of residence. 

Figure 4.  20 Lansdowne Crescent, Glasgow, Scotland.
(Image courtesy of Google Earth) 

            On 10 November 1923 he departed Southampton for New York with his wife Mary Maude MacFeat, née Cherry (1898-1987) aboard S.S. Tyrrhenia.  On this manifest he listed his occupation as “Engineer” and his address as 44 Leadenhall Street in London.  Since this address is located in the business district of London, it probably was the U.K. office of the Kaitan Mining Company.  He again listed his intended country of residence as China. 

            On 2 October 1925 MacFeat’s 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal were issued by the War Department and were sent to his wife at 18 Lansdowne Crescent in Glasgow.  Apparently he was in China at the time and his wife was at their home in Glasgow, two doors down from the address shown in Figure 4 above.[25]  

            On 5 March 1927 MacFeat departed Greenock, Scotland aboard S.S. Monthairn bound for Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  For this trip he listed himself as a “Civil Engineer” representing Horace Holt & Company in London and declared his intended country of residence to be Canada.[26] Horace Holt & Company does not exist today and it is not known why MacFeat would have declared Canada as his intended country of residence, as he was still employed by the Kaitan Mining Company in China at the time.  

            MacFeat’s job title with Kaitan changed from Assistant Engineer to Business Manager sometime in 1928 and he appears to have held this position until 1935.[27]  On 23 June 1928 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers Special Reserve with a date of rank of 20 August 1922.[28] 

            He continued working for the Kaitan Mining Company and continued to visit Canada.  One may assume that Kaitan had interests in Canada or perhaps he or his wife had family there.  On 21 December 1929 he sailed on S.S. Duchess of Richmond, departing St. John, New Brunswick for Greenock.  His wife was with him.  This may have been their return trip to Scotland from their March 1927 visit to Canada.  He listed himself as a “Civil Servant” with his intended country of residence as China.  This is rather confusing as he appeared to still be working for the Kaitan Mining Company in China and therefore was not a “Civil Servant.”[29] 

            From 1930 to 1933 MacFeat served as Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Tientsin, China.  He was at the time also working for the Kaitan Mining Company.[30] He and his wife departed Liverpool on 4 April 1930 aboard S.S. Duchess of York again bound for St. John, New Brunswick.  This time he listed is occupation as “Engineer” and his intended country of residence as China.[31] 

            From 1934 to 1935 MacFeat served as deputy to the General Manager of the Kaitan Mining Company.[32]  His travels to Canada continued during this period and on 3 November 1934 he sailed aboard S.S. Duchess of Atholl from Greenock, bound for Quebec and Montreal.  For this trip he again claimed association with Horace Holt & Company in London, but listed his intended country of residence as China.[33]  In 1936 he received another promotion within the Kaitan Mining Company when he was made the Chief Administrator, a position he held until 1938.  On 15 April 1938 he sailed on S.S. Duchess of Atholl from Greenock for one last journey to Quebec and Montreal.  This time he listed his home address as Glendaven House, Leamahagow, Scotland, his occupation as “Civil Engineer” and his intended country of residence as China.[34] It would appear, therefore, that he maintained his employment with Kaitan until the outbreak of World War 2.

            Lieutenant Colonel MacFeat was appointed the Deputy Director of Equipment and Stores at the Headquarters, India on 14 April 1943.[35]  Following the war he served as the Senior Civil Affairs Officer in Penang, Malaysia from 1 November 1945 to 8 March 1946.[36]  In 1946 he relinquished his commission and retired from the Army with the honorary rank of Colonel.[37]  However, his work for the government was not yet over.  He was appointed Chief of the Disposal Group in the Control Commission for Germany (British Element).  The British Element of the Control Commission for Germany assumed full responsibility for the administration of the British occupied zone from 1945.  Presumably the “Disposal Group” was responsible for the disposal of German weapons and war machines of the Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.  For his service in the Control Commission he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (Civil Division) on 5 June 1952.[38] 

Figure 5. Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E) (Civil Division)
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia) 

            From 1957 to 1964 MacFeat and his wife resided at 48 Inverleith Place Edinburgh.[39]  On 14 July 1959 he was appointed Officer (Brother) of the Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and then on 26 June 1964 he was appointed Commander (Brother) of the same order.[40]

 NOTE:  The medal shown above is not the medal of Colonel MacFeat.  It is shown here for illustrative purposes only. 

Figure 6.  48 Inverleith Place, Edinburgh.
(Image courtesy of Google Earth) 

            Peter Donald MacFeat died in Edinburgh on 14 July 1982.[41]  His wife, Maude Mary, died in Edinburgh on 1 March 1987.[42]

REFERENCES: 

Army Lists 

1.      The Monthly Army List, October 1943, page 126.

2.      The Monthly Army List, October 1945, page 1318.

Civil Documents 

1.      The Institution of Civil Engineers, Form A, For Election as Member or Associate Member, 25 May 1913.

2.      Membership List, The Institution of Civil Engineers, 1818-1930.

3.      Electoral Rolls, Glasgow, 1912.

4.      Electoral Rolls, Edinburgh, 1957-1964.

5.      Foreign Residents List.

Internet Web Sites 

1.      Fold3.

https://www.fold3.com/search?docQuery=(keywords:Peter+Donald+MacFeat)

2.      Imperial War Museum (2^nd Lieutenants, page 18).

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/searchlives/Royal%20Engineers/filter/type%3Dagent

3.      University of Glasgow Roll of Honour.

https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/roll_of_honour/person/562

4.      Ancestry.com: Asia, Directories and Chronicles Relating to Government Agencies and Foreign Nationals, 1917-1941.

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62492/records/1046994?tid=&pid=&queryId=cc890964-74c6-4d81-a04c-a7aaecab59c2&_phsrc=hFr6468&_phstart=successSource

5.      Europeans in East Africa.

https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.asp?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=22907

6.      Malaysia States and Territories.

https://www.worldstatesmen.org/Malay_states.htm

7.      Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

https://www.cwgc.org/

8.      The Long, Long Trail: Railway Construction Companies of the Royal Engineers.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-corps-of-royal-engineers-in-the-first-world-war/railway-construction-companies-of-the-royal-engineers/

London Gazette 

1.      The London Gazette, 12 April 1910, p. 2495.

2.      The London Gazette, 16 July 1912, p. 5184.

3.      Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January 1917, pp. 29 and 37.

4.      The London Gazette, 28 August 1923, p. 5841

5.      Supplement to the London Gazette, 5 June 1952, p. 3028.

6.      The London Gazette, 14 July 1959, pp. 4468 and 4469.

7.      The London Gazette, 26 June 1964, pp. 5540 and 5541.

Military Documents 

1.      Royal Engineers Medal Roll: 1914-15 Star.

2.      Royal Engineers Medal Roll: British War Medal and Victory Medal.

3.      Medal Index Card.

4.      Mention in Despatches Index Card (typed), London Gazette, 4-1-1917, Volume 29890, page 215.

5.      Mention in Despatches Index Card (hand-written), London Gazette, 4-1-1917, page 215.

6.      Mention in Despatches Index Card (hand-written), London Gazette, 23-12-1918, page 15042.

7.      War Diary: WO 95/4053 112 Railway Company Royal Engineers 1914 Nov. - 1919 May.

8.      Service Papers, The National Archives, WO 339/8702 (not digitized).

Ships Manifests 

1.      S.S. Naldera: Departed, (?) on 10 April 1920 for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

2.      S.S. Empress of Scotland: Arrived at Southampton on 11 August 1923 from Quebec via Cherbourg. 

3.      S.S. Tyrrhenia: Departed Southampton on 10 November 1923 for New York.

4.      S.S. Monthairn: Departed Greenock on 5 March 1927 for Saint John, New Brunswick.

5.      S.S. Duchess of Richmond: Departed Saint John, New Brunswick on 21 December 1929, for Greenock.

6.      S.S. Duchess of York: Departed Liverpool on 4 April 1930 for Saint John, New Brunswick.

7.      S.S. Duchess of Atholl: Departed Greenock on 3 November 1934 for Quebec and Montreal.

8.      S.S. Duchess of Atholl: Departed Greenock on 15 April 1938 for Quebec and Montreal.

ENDNOTES: