Major Basil Arthur John Peto (13 December 1900 – 3 February 1954) was a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician.

Early life

Peto was born 13 December 1900 at Chertsey, Surrey, the son of Sir Basil Peto, a former Member of Parliament."Major John Peto." Times ondon, England4 Feb. 1954: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. Peto was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, where he read history and political economy.

Military

In 1924, Peto was commissioned in the Royal Artillery; two years later he transferred to the King's Dragoon Guards. In 1929, he was appointed as ADC to the governor of Bombay, and from 1932 to 1935 he served in India. Peto retired in 1939, but, with the start of the Second World War in 1939, Peto rejoined the army.

Politics

As a founder member of the

Cambridge University Conservative Association The Cambridge University Conservative Association, or CUCA, is a long-established student political society founded 1921, as a Conservative Association for students at Cambridge University, although it has earlier roots in the late nineteenth ce ...

and a father who was a Member of Parliament he always had an interest in politics. In 1941, Peto was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for Birmingham King's Norton at a by-election in May 1941 following the death of the sitting MP

Ronald Cartland Major John Ronald Hamilton Cartland (3 January 1907 – 30 May 1940) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Norton in Birmingham from 1935 until he was killed in action, aged 33. He was the ...

. From 1941 to 1945, Peto was a parliamentary private secretary to Geoffrey Lloyd chairman of the Oil Control Board. Peto stood again at the 1945 general election but was defeated by the Labour Party candidate,

Raymond Blackburn Albert Raymond Blackburn (11 March 1915 – 3 November 1991) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Birmingham King's Norton and Birmingham Northfield constituencies. Early life Blackburn was born on ...

Family and later life

Peto married Patricia Geraldine Browne in 1934; the couple had a son and three daughters. On 3 February 1954, Peto was found shot dead in the garden of his home in Witley, Surrey with the gun beside him. It was concluded that Peto, who regularly shot in his gardens, had slipped on ice and shot himself."Former M.P. Found Shot Dead." Times ondon, England4 Feb. 1954: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peto, John 1900 births 1954 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1935–1945 Accidental deaths in England People from Chertsey People educated at Harrow College 1st King's Dragoon Guards officers