| Honorific-Prefix: | Brigadier |
| Sir Christopher Peto, 3rd Baronet | |
| Office: | Member of Parliament for North Devon |
| Term Start: | 23 February 1950 |
| Term End: | 6 May 1955 |
| Predecessor: | New constituency |
| Successor: | James Lindsay |
| Office2: | Member of Parliament for Barnstaple |
| Term Start2: | 5 July 1945 |
| Term End2: | 3 February 1950 |
| Predecessor2: | Sir Richard Acland |
| Successor2: | Constituency abolished |
| Birth Date: | 19 February 1897 |
| Birth Place: | Chertsey, Surrey |
| Death Place: | Basingstoke, Hampshire |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1915–1946 |
| Servicenumber: | 13521 |
| Rank: | Brigadier |
| Commands: | 137th Armoured Brigade (1942–43) 29th Armoured Brigade (1940–42) 9th Queen's Royal Lancers (1938–40) |
| Battles: | First World War Second World War |
| Mawards: | Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (3) Knight of the Legion of Honour (France) Croix de Guerre (France) Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium) Croix de Guerre (Belgium) Commander of the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia) War Cross (Czechoslovakia) Commander of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau (Luxembourg) War Cross (Luxembourg) Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland) |
Brigadier Sir Christopher Henry Maxwell Peto, 3rd Baronet, (19 February 1897 – 19 May 1980) was a senior officer in the British Army during the Second World War and a post-war Conservative Party politician.
Peto was born in Chertsey, Surrey, on 19 February 1897,[1] the son of Sir Basil Peto, 1st Baronet and Mary Matilda Annie (née Baird).
Peto graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers on 11 August 1915. He served in both the First World War and Second World War, attaining the rank of brigadier.
Peto took command of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers in October 1938, being one of the few officers in the regiment to have seen action in the First World War. He was tasked with carrying on the mechanised training of the regiment in the buildup to the war, to mobilise it when war came and to take it to France in May 1940.
The regimental history of the Lancers has this description of him in its foreword:
When the regiment deployed to France it was not well equipped and this was partly the reason for Peto becoming wounded:
As well as being awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Peto also received:
At the 1945 general election, Peto was elected as the Member of Parliament for Barnstaple. For the 1950 general election, the Barnstaple constituency was abolished, and Peto was returned instead for the newly recreated Devon North constituency, where he served until the 1955 general election.
In 1966, Peto was appointed the High Sheriff of Wiltshire for the year. He inherited the baronetcy created for his father in 1977, upon the death of his elder brother.
Peto died at Basingstoke, Hampshire, aged 83 in 1980. The title was inherited by his son, Michael, who became the 4th Baronet. Michael had three sons and the elder of these, Henry, is the 5th and current Baronet of this creation. The other Peto baronetcy, created for Peto's grandfather, is also still extant in the senior branch of the family.