Peter George Grenfell, 2nd Baron St. Just (22 July 1922 – 1984) was an English peer, a member of the House of Lords from 1943 until his death.

Life

Grenfell was the only son of

Edward Grenfell Edward Charles Grenfell, 1st Baron St Just (29 May 1870 – 26 November 1941), was a British banker and politician. His father, Henry Riversdale Grenfell, was Governor of the Bank of England between 1881 and 1883. William Grenfell, 1st Baron ...

, 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 for the City of London, and his wife Florence Emily Henderson. Charles Mosley, ed., ''

Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Bri ...

'', 107th edition, volume 2 (2003), p. 1658 He was educated at Sandroyd School 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, of St Just in Penwith 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 and Leslie Foster. They were divorced in 1955, and on 25 July 1956 he married secondly Maria Britneva, a Russian-born actress, the daughter of Alexander Britnev, whose mother had brought her to England as a child. They lived at Wilbury House 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'', 2 April 1990, accessed 7 December 2020 and Natasha Jeannine Mary Grenfell (1959). His daughter Katherine married Oliver Gilmour.

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 King's Royal Rifle Corps officers