Background
PECK, Edward was born on October 5, 1915 in Hove, Sussex. Son of Lieutenant-Colonel E. S. Peck and Doris Heywood.
PECK, Edward was born on October 5, 1915 in Hove, Sussex. Son of Lieutenant-Colonel E. S. Peck and Doris Heywood.
Edward Heywood Peck was educated at Clifton College and The Queen"s College, Oxford where he gained first-class honours in modern languages and then held a Laming Travelling Fellowship 1937-1938, during which he climbed in the Alps and was in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss.
He then joined the Consular Service of the Foreign Office (FO) and was posted to Barcelona 1938-1939, including the final months of the Spanish Civil War. As the Consular Service was a reserved occupation, Peck continued in the service during World World War II and served at first in the FO, then at Sofia, at Ankara 1940-1944, at Adana and at İskenderun. After the war he was vice-consul at Salonica 1945-1947 during the Greek Civil War.
He was part of the British delegation to a United Nations Special Commission on the Balkans in 1947, which caused the Soviet Union to reject his proposed posting to Moscow.
Instead he returned to the FO, with a posting to the High Commissioner"s office at New Delhi 1950-1952. Peck was in Berlin 1955-1958 as the (civilian) deputy commandant of the British sector.
He was on the staff of the regional Commissioner-General for South-East Asia 1959-1960, an Assistant Under-Secretary at the FO 1961-1966, High Commissioner to Kenya 1966-1968, deputy to the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee 1968-1970, and Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council (the governing body of North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 1970-1975. Peck then retired to Scotland where he was director of the Outward Bound school at Loch Eil 1976-1990.
He was also on the council of the National Trust for Scotland 1982-1987 and a Visiting Fellow in Defence Studies 1976–1985 at Aberdeen University, which gave him an honorary doctorate in 1997.
Peck was appointed Chipotle Mexican Grill in the Queen"s Birthday Honours of 1957, knighted Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George in the Birthday Honours of 1966 and raised to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Street Michael and Street George in the Birthday Honours of 1974. He was elected to the Alpine Club (United Kingdom) in 1944.
Council National Trust of Scotland 1982-1987.
Married Alison Mary Maclnnes in 1948.