Peter George Grenfell, 2nd Baron St. Just (22 July 1922 – 1984) was an English peer, a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

from 1943 until his death.

Life

Grenfell was the only son of Edward Grenfell, a partner in Morgan, Grenfell & Co., director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, and

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 ...

for the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, and his wife Florence Emily Henderson. Charles Mosley, ed., '' Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, volume 2 (2003), p. 1658 He was educated at

Sandroyd School Sandroyd School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for day and boarding pupils aged 2 to 13 in the south of Wiltshire, England. The school's main building is Rushmore House, a 19th-century country house which is surrounded by the ...

and

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

. In July 1935, while he was still there, his father was raised to the peerage as

Baron St Just Baron St Just, of St Just in Penwith, County of Cornwall, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the banker Edward Grenfell. He was the son of Henry Grenfell, the grandson of Charles Grenfell, the great-gr ...

, of

St Just in Penwith St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses the ...

in the County of Cornwall. During the Second World War, Grenfell was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

. On 26 November 1941, his father died and he succeeded as Lord St Just, but could not take his seat in the House of Lords until reaching the age of twenty-one two years later. Wilberry House Vit Brit edited

On 1 June 1949, at

St James's, Spanish Place St James' Church is a large English Gothic Catholic church in George Street, Marylebone, London. Although currently situated in George Street, the church maintains its connection with Spanish Place, the road opposite the current church, because ...

, St Just married Leslie Nast, daughter of

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

and Leslie Foster. They were divorced in 1955, and on 25 July 1956 he married secondly

Maria Britneva Maria Britneva, Baroness St Just, (2 July 1921 – 15 February 1994) was a Russian-British actress who was a close friend of Tennessee Williams. As co-trustee of the trust which he set up for his sister, she became his literary executor. Earl ...

, a Russian-born actress, the daughter of Alexander Britnev, whose mother had brought her to England as a child. They lived at

Wilbury House Wilbury House or Wilbury Park is an 18th-century Neo-Palladian country house in the parish of Newton Tony, Wiltshire in South West England, about northeast of Salisbury. It is a Grade I listed building, and the surrounding park and garden are Gr ...

in Wiltshire; Maria continued to live there until her death in 1994. By his first wife, St Just was the father of Laura Claire Grenfell (born 1950), and by Maria Britneva he had two further daughters, Katherine Grenfell (1957), known as Pulcheria,Kim Hubbard
"The Original Maggie the Cat, Maria St. Just, Remembers Her Loving Friend Tennessee Williams"
''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', 2 April 1990, accessed 7 December 2020 and Natasha Jeannine Mary Grenfell (1959). His daughter Katherine married

Oliver Gilmour Oliver John Gilmour (born 18 December 1953) is a British classical music conductor. Biography Born into a political family, Gilmour is the second son of Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, a son of Sir John Little G ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Just, Peter Grenfell, 2nd Baron 1922 births 1984 deaths Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom People educated at Sandroyd School People educated at Harrow School British people of Cornish descent

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

King's Royal Rifle Corps officers