| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Newton | |
| Office: | Minister of State for Education and Science |
| Primeminister: | Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
| Term Start: | 1 April 1964 |
| Term End: | 16 October 1964 |
| Predecessor: | Sir Edward Boyle |
| Successor: | The Lord Bowden |
| Office1: | Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health |
| Monarch1: | Elizabeth II |
| Primeminister1: | Harold Macmillan Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
| Term Start1: | 6 September 1962 |
| Term End1: | 1 April 1964 |
| Predecessor1: | Edith Pitt |
| Successor1: | The Marquess of Lothian |
| Office3: | Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Lords Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard |
| Term Start3: | 28 October 1960 |
| Term End3: | 6 September 1962 |
| Monarch3: | Elizabeth II |
| Primeminister3: | Harold Macmillan |
| Predecessor3: | The Earl of Onslow |
| Successor3: | The Viscount Goschen |
| Office4: | Deputy Chief Whipof the House of Commons Treasurer of the Household |
| Monarch4: | Elizabeth II |
| Primeminister4: | Harold Macmillan |
| Term Start4: | 16 January 1959 |
| Term End4: | 21 June 1960 |
| Predecessor4: | Hendrie Oakshott |
| Successor4: | Sir Edward Wakefield, Bt. |
| Office5: | Vice-Chamberlain of the Household |
| Monarch5: | Elizabeth II |
| Primeminister5: | Harold Macmillan |
| Term Start5: | 17 September 1957 |
| Term End5: | 16 January 1959 |
| Predecessor5: | Sir Richard Thompson, Bt. |
| Successor5: | Sir Edward Wakefield, Bt. |
| Office6: | Lord Commissioner of the Treasury |
| Monarch6: | Elizabeth II |
| Primeminister6: | Anthony Eden |
| Term Start6: | 13 June 1955 |
| Term End6: | 17 September 1957 |
| Predecessor6: | Hendrie Oakshott |
| Successor6: | Richard Brooman-White |
| Office7: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start7: | 12 June 1960 |
| Term End7: | 16 June 1992 Hereditary Peerage |
| Predecessor7: | The 3rd Lord Newton |
| Successor7: | The 5th Lord Newton |
| Office8: | Member of Parliament for Petersfield |
| Predecessor8: | Sir George Jeffreys |
| Successor8: | Joan Quennell |
| Term Start8: | 25 October 1951 |
| Term End8: | 11 June 1960 |
| Birth Name: | Peter Richard Legh |
| Birth Date: | 6 April 1915 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Death Place: | Droxford, England |
| Nationality: | British |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Alma Mater: | Christ Church, Oxford |
Peter Richard Legh, 4th Baron Newton (6 April 1915 - 16 June 1992), was a British 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.[1] His grandfather Thomas Wodehouse Legh, 2nd Baron Newton was also a Conservative politician and served as Paymaster General during the First World War
Newton was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and served in the Second World War as a Major in the Grenadier Guards.[2] 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 for Petersfield, and served in the Conservative administrations of Churchill, Eden and 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 House of Lords, causing a by-election in Petersfield which was won by the Conservative candidate, Joan Quennell.[2]
He continued to serve under Macmillan and later Home as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and Assistant Chief Whip in the 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 Education and Science in 1964.[2]
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.[2] [3] He was succeeded in the Barony by his elder son Richard Thomas Legh.
| Escutcheon: | Gules a cross engrailed Argent in the chief point on an inescutcheon Sable semee of estoiles an arm in armour embowed of the second the hand Proper holding a pennon Silver all within a bordure wavy Or. |
| Crest: | Issuant out of a ducal coronet Or a ram's head Argent armed Or in the mouth a laurel slip Vert the whole debruised by a pallet wavy Azure.[4] |
| Supporters: | Two mastiffs Proper collared Sable. |
| Motto: | En Dieu Est Ma Foi (In God Is My Faith) |