Peter Legh, 4th Baron Newton: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=AprilDecember 20122022}}

|caption =

|birthname birth_name = Peter Richard Legh

|birth_date = 6 April{{birth date|1915 |4|6|df=yes}}

|alma_mater = [[Eton College]] <br /> [[Christ Church, Oxford]]

'''Peter Richard Legh, 4th Baron Newton''' (6 April 1915 &ndash; 16 June 1992),<ref>{{cite news |author1=Patrick Cosgrave |author-link1= |title=Obituary: Lord Newton |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-newton-1533835.html |url-access= |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=[[The Independent]] |language= |date=17 July 1992}}</ref> was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician who held junior ministerial positions during the 1950s and 1960s.

Newton was born in [[Chelsea, London]], in 1915, the son of [[Richard Legh, 3rd Baron Newton]] and Helen Winifred Meysey-Thompson, daughter of [[Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=6vqjzyt0z9AqcSiH21Pk%2Bg&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=22 May 2023|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref> His grandfather [[Thomas Wodehouse Legh, 2nd Baron Newton]] was also a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician and served as [[Paymaster- General]] during the [[First World War]].

Newton was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]] and [[Christ Church, Oxford]], and served in the [[Second World War]] as a Major in the [[Grenadier Guards]].<ref name = Cosgrave>{{cite news|last = Cosgrave|first = Patrick|title=Obituary: Lord Newton |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-newton-1533835.html |url-access= |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=[[The Independent]]|location=London |date=17 July 1992}}</ref> After the war Newton was a member of the [[Hampshire County Council]] from 1949 to 1952 and from 1954 to 1955. In 1951 he was elected [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Petersfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Petersfield]], and served in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] administrations of [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]], [[Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon|Eden]] and [[Harold Macmillan|Macmillan]] as [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]] to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury [[John Boyd-Carpenter]] from 1952 to 1953, as an Assistant Government Whip from 1953 to 1955, as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1955 to 1957, as [[Vice-Chamberlain of the Household]] from 1957 to 1959 and as [[Treasurer of the Household]] from 1959 to 1960. In 1960 Newton succeeded his father as 4th Baron Newton and took his seat in the [[British House of Lords|House of Lords]], causing a [[by-election]] in [[Petersfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Petersfield]] which was won by the Conservative candidate, [[Joan Quennell]].<ref name = Cosgrave/>

He continued to serve under [[Harold Macmillan|Macmillan]] and later [[Alec Douglas-Home|Home]] as [[Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard]] and Assistant Chief Whip in the [[British House of Lords|House of Lords]] from 1960 to 1962, as Joint [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health]] from 1962 to 1964 and as [[Minister of State]] for [[Department for Education|Education and Science]] in 1964.<ref name = Cosgrave/>

In 1948 Newton married Priscilla Warburton, daughter of Captain John Egerton Warburton and widow of Major William Matthew Palmer, Viscount Wolmer, son and heir of [[Roundell Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne]]. They had two sons. Lord Newton died in [[Droxford]] on 16 June, 1992, aged 77.<ref name = Cosgrave/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=JEMRt495cKEupsO11tc6lg&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=22 May 2023|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref> He was succeeded in the Barony by his elder son [[Richard Thomas Legh, 5th Baron Legh|Richard Thomas Legh]].