Brigadier Sir Christopher Henry Maxwell Peto, 3rd Baronet, DSO, DL (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 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.
The regimental history of the Lancers has this description of him in its foreword: His was the responsibility of showing all ranks how to behave under fire, and so much depends upon the leadership the first time men go into battle.
for his services in France in 1940, though this was not known until Major-General Victor Fortune, Commander of the 51st Highland Division, was able to make his recommendations on his return from captivity in Germany.
Many were caused by failure in higher places to foresee more accurately the type of equipment which would be required, to provide it in time, and to settle with less vacillation the organisation of the troops who would use it.
We had found it impossible to depress the guns on our tanks sufficiently to bear, and Lt-Col Peto, firing from his turret with his pistol, was badly wounded in the right hand.