John Peyton, Baron Peyton of Yeovil

John Wynne William Peyton, Baron Peyton of Yeovil, (13 February 1919 – 22 November 2006) was a British Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament for Yeovil for over 31 years, from 1951 to 1983, and an early and leading member of the Conservative Monday Club. He served as Minister of Transport (later renamed Minister of Transport Industries in the Department of the Environment) from 1970 to 1974. He was a candidate for leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, losing to Margaret Thatcher.

Early years Peyton was born in Mayfair in 1919, and was educated at Eton College. As a member of the Eton OTC, he was a member of the honour guard within the grounds of Windsor Castle at the state funeral of King George V in 1936. He read law at Trinity College, Oxford, from 1937, but took a commission in the 15/19 Hussars in 1939 on the outbreak of World War II.

Marriages He was married twice. He married Diana, daughter of Douglas Clinch, in 1947, but was divorced in early 1966. They had two sons, one of whom died young, and a daughter. He remarried on 27 July 1966, to Mary Cobbold, daughter of Colonel Humphrey Wyndham (also her second marriage).

He held right-wing views, but consistently opposed capital punishment, and he led a rebellion against the privatisation of the British rail industry under John Major in 1990. He also supported reform of the House of Lords to create a wholly directly elected second chamber, and a smaller House of Commons in which terms ran seven years instead of five. He was survived by his second wife, Mary, and his daughter and surviving son from his first marriage.