Sir Peter Proby, 2nd Baronet

Sir Peter Proby, 2nd Baronet, KStJ DL (4 December 1911 – 18 April 2002) was an English landowner and bursar of Eton.

Early life Peter Proby was born in Suffolk on 4 December 1911, the eldest son of Sir Richard Proby and his first wife, Betty Monica Murray. He was raised on the 3,700-acre family estate, Elton Hall, near Oundle. Peter was educated at Eton College before reading Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Trinity College, Oxford.

On his mother's side, Peter Proby was a great grandson of the Scottish publisher John Murray III through his younger son Alexander Henry Hallam (known as Hallam). Hallam Murray was the father of Betty Monica Murray and was thus Peter Proby's maternal grandfather.

Career After graduating from Oxford, he worked for the China trading firm of Jardine Matheson for four years, traveling between company posts on the Yangtze, leaving China in 1938. He enlisted in the Irish Guards upon the outbreak of World War II, spending most of his career in military intelligence interpreting aerial photographs and interrogating captured German airmen.

After the war, Proby qualified as a land agent, and then managed the family estate. In 1953, Proby was offered the bursarship of Eton. During his tenure there, several new buildings were erected, including Villiers and Farrer houses, and the college chapel was renovated after an infestation of death watch beetle. Proby was noted for his skilled financial management of these projects, and for his enthusiasm for new technology. After retiring from the bursarship in 1971, he returned to the management of Elton and engaged in local affairs.

Proby was appointed Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983.

Personal life On 15 January 1944, he married Blanche Harrison Cripps, daughter of Colonel Henry Harrison Cripps. Together, they were the parents of five children, with their youngest being twins: Sir William Proby, 3rd Baronet (b. 1949). He married Meredyth Anne Brentnall in 1974. Charlotte Mary Proby (b. 1957), who married Stephen John Hay in 1984. Christine Elisabeth Proby (b. 1957), who married Christopher Dobbs in 1983.

Sir Peter Proby died on 18 April 2002. His estate's net worth was £381,718 at the time of his death.