Sir Basil Edward Peto, 1st Baronet (13 August 1862 – 28 January 1945)[1] was a British businessman and Unionist politician.
He travelled widely for the company supervising the mining and purchase of plumbago in the United States, Canada, India and Ceylon.
[1][7] During the First World War he held a temporary commission in the British Army and acted as the Chief Commissioner for Belgian Refugee Affairs.
[7][12] Peto returned to the House of Commons, twice serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Barnstaple constituency, holding the seat from 1922 to 1923 and again from 1924 to 1935.
[13] He found himself at odds with many of the policies of Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, and lost the party whip to sit as an independent in April 1928.