Maurice Petherick

Maurice Petherick (5 October 1894 – 4 August 1985) ^[1] was a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penryn & Falmouth from 1931 to 1945, and as Financial Secretary to the War Office, briefly, in 1945.

Petherick in 1947

Early life

He was born on 5 October 1894, the son of George Tallack Petherick (b. 1860) and Edith Petherick, his wife.^[2] He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Military service

During the Great War, he was a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Devon Yeomanry^{[citation needed][clarification needed]} 1914 but was invalided out in 1915. He served in Foreign Office, 1916–17; he was recommissioned Royal Scots Greys, 1917 and served in France, 1918. In October 1939, he was recommissioned to the General List Army, as a Captain and promoted to Temporary Major.

Parliamentary service

Having contested the parliamentary seat of Penryn & Falmouth in 1929, as a Conservative,^[3][4] he was elected as MP in that division in the General Elections of 1931^[5][6] and 1935^[7]

He was one of the MPs, who, in 1945, opposed the Yalta agreement, because of the treatment of Poland.^[8] He was Financial Secretary to the War Office from 26 May 1945 to 4 August 1945, in the "Caretaker Government".

In the 1945 General Election, he was defeated by the Labour candidate, Evelyn King.

Other activities

Between 1953 and 1971, he was a Director of the Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. He was High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1957. He wrote two novels and a collective biography of "rogues".

He died on 4 August 1985. At his death, his residence was Porthpean House,^[9] Lower Porthpean, St Austell, Cornwall. The garden that he developed there is still famous.

Publications

• 1932: Captain Culverin. London: Ernest Benn (novel)
• 1943: Victoire: a novel. London: Macmillan
• 1951: Restoration Rogues; with plates, including portraits. London: Hollis & Carter (On Thomas Blood, William Bedloe, Ralph Montagu, Thomas Dangerfield, Edward Fitzharris^[10] and Barbara Villiers.)