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Major Basil Arthur John Peto (13 December 1900 – 3 February 1954)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician.
Peto was born 13 December 1900 at Chertsey, Surrey, the son of Sir Basil Peto, a former Member of Parliament.[2] Peto was educated at Harrow School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he read history and political economy.[2]
In 1924, Peto was commissioned in the Royal Artillery; two years later he transferred to the King's Dragoon Guards.[2] In 1929, he was appointed as ADC to the governor of Bombay, and from 1932 to 1935 he served in India.[2] Peto retired in 1939, but, with the start of the Second World War in 1939, Peto rejoined the army.[2]
As a founder member of the Cambridge University Conservative Association 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 (MP) for Birmingham King's Norton at a by-election in May 1941 following the death of the sitting MP Ronald Cartland.[2][3] From 1941 to 1945, Peto was a parliamentary private secretary to Geoffrey Lloyd chairman of the Oil Control Board.[2] Peto stood again at the 1945 general election but was defeated by the Labour Party candidate, Raymond Blackburn.[3]
Peto married Patricia Geraldine Browne in 1934; the couple had a son and three daughters.[2] On 3 February 1954, Peto was found shot dead in the garden of his home in Witley, Surrey with the gun beside him.[2] It was concluded that Peto, who regularly shot in his gardens, had slipped on ice and shot himself.[4]
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