Peter Blunt

Life and career

Born at Farnborough, Hampshire, into an army family, Blunt was the son of Claudia Mabel (née Wintle) and Albert G. Blunt. He was educated in India before returning to England in 1937 at the age of fourteen to enrol as an apprentice tradesman in the Royal Army Service Corps school on the island of Jersey.

In 1940, after the fall of France, and with the German occupation of the Channel Islands imminent, the school was evacuated and Blunt found himself in an RASC training battalion. He saw active service in the Italian campaign in 1944 before returning to England for officer training. He was then commissioned into the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers as a second lieutenant and commanded a close protection platoon defending Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group headquarters. He was present at the signing of the unconditional German surrender at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May 1945.

During the Second World War he served also in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. After an appointment as adjutant of the British Army garrison in Dieppe, Blunt left the army in 1946 and joined the Allied Control Commission in Germany, then was an inspector at Bletchley Park. In 1949 he returned to the Army on a short service commission in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

In 1951 he gained a regular commission and joined the Royal Army Service Corps. He passed the Staff College in 1957 and the Joint Services Staff College in 1963, and then in 1965 was sent to command 26 (Heavy Ferry) Bridging Regiment Royal Army Service Corps and, by some accounts, to resolve a mutiny. Later that year the unit became 26 Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport. In 1968 he was appointed General Staff Officer 1 for Defence Plans, Far East Land Forces, and from 1970 to 1972 commanded the Royal Corps of Transport 1st Corps, before being seconded to the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1972.

After service as Deputy Transport Officer-in-Chief for the Army, he became Transport Officer-in-Chief in 1973, then was Assistant Chief of Personnel and Logistics (Army) at the Ministry of Defence in 1977–78 and Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel and Logistics), 1978–79, when he retired the service, while continuing in the ceremonial role of Colonel Commandant of the Royal Corps of Transport (1974–1989).

Entering the world of business, Blunt was Managing Director of Earls Court Ltd., 1979–80, Angex-Watson, 1980–83, and Market Sensors, 1980–88. He was Chairman of Angex Ltd., 1988–90, and of Argus Shield Ltd., 1988–89. He was also a director of Associated Newspapers.

He was a special Commissioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, from 1979 to 1985, and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carmen from 1973.

In 1959 Blunt was awarded the George Medal for his courage in saving two men from a lorry carrying a load of petrol which had crashed near Bielefeld, Germany.

Family

In 1949 Blunt married Adrienne, the daughter of General T. W. Richardson, and they had three sons, including Oliver Blunt QC and Crispin Blunt, Conservative Member of Parliament for Reigate. His address at the time of his death was Harefield House, Ramsbury, in Wiltshire. His grandchildren include the actress Emily Blunt.