Peter Churchill

Peter Morland Churchill
Peter Churchill in 1947
Born	(1909-01-14)14 January 1909 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died	1 May 1972(1972-05-01) Le Rouret, France
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1940–1945
Rank	Captain
Service number	162707
Unit	Army Intelligence Corps Special Operations Executive
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	Distinguished Service Order Croix de Guerre (France)

Peter Morland Churchill DSO Croix de Guerre (14 January 1909 – 1 May 1972) was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer in France during the Second World War.

His wartime operations, which resulted in his capture and imprisonment in German concentration camps, and his subsequent marriage to fellow SOE officer Odette Samson, received considerable attention after the war, including a 1950 film.

Churchill's father was William Algernon Churchill (1865–1947), a British Consul who served in Mozambique, Amsterdam, Pará in Brazil, Stockholm, Milan, Palermo, and Algiers. His father was also an art connoisseur, and author of what is still the standard reference work on early European paper and papermaking, Watermarks in Paper, and his mother Violet (née Myers). He was a brother of Walter Churchill, a Royal Air Force pilot during the war, and Oliver Churchill, who was also an SOE officer.

Peter was born in Amsterdam on 14 January 1909. He was educated at Malvern School from 1923-27, then spent 18 months at Chillon Castle, then to Geneva University, and from 1929-32 read Modern Languages at Caius College, Cambridge. In addition to his native English, he was bilingual in French and fluent in Spanish, Italian and German. He also excelled in sports – he had the reputation of being one of the finest ice-hockey blues the university had produced and was Captain of the Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club in 1932 and won 15 international caps, was proficient at exhibition diving, was a first-class skier, and played golf off a six handicap.