Peter Witheridge Grafton CBE (19 May 1916 – 20 May 2012), was a British Liberal Party politician and surveyor.
Background He was born one of twin brothers,The Times House of Commons, 1950 sons of James Hawkins Grafton and Ethel Marion Brannan. He was educated at Westminster City School, Sutton Valence School and the College of Estate Management. In 1939 he married Joan Bleackley who died in 1969. They had two daughters (and one son and one daughter, deceased). In 1971 he married Margaret Ruth Ward. They had two sons.‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
Early career He served as a captain in the war of 1939–45 in the Queen's Westminster Rifles, the Dorsetshire Regiment and the Royal Engineers in the UK and the Far East.‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014 He served in India, Ceylon, and Java and went with the expeditionary force to the Cocos Islands.The Times House of Commons, 1950
Political career He was Liberal candidate for the Bromley division of Kent at the 1950 General Election. He broke his leg three days before the election was called and conducted his campaign on crutches.The Times House of Commons, 1950
He did not stand for parliament again.British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S. In 1953, together with Desmond Banks who had been Liberal parliamentary candidate in Harrow East in 1950, Grafton co-founded the Radical Reform Group,A Radical Life by Mervyn Jones a social liberal pressure group within the Liberal Party to prevent what many saw as a rightward drift by the party, and its potential capture by the economic liberals. The Group campaigned under the slogan 'social reform without socialism'. Grafton was the group's Honorary Secretary.The Campaign Guide, 1955
Professional career He was a senior partner, at G. D. Walford & Partners, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, 1978–82 having been a Partner 1949–78.‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
In 1972 he was appointed a CBE.‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
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