Peter Hunter Gaskell

The son of vice-admiral Sir Arthur Gaskell, a noted surgeon who was an honorary surgeon to the His Majesty the King, Peter Gaskell did not follow his father’s profession, but became a barrister at the Inner Temple. He was educated at Charterhouse School (1928-33) and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the First Trinity Boat Club. He never won a rowing Blue, but did take part in Boat Race trials.

Gaskell was first reserve for the Great Britain eights at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the following year, three years after making his Henley début with First Trinity, he won the Stewards’ Cup with the four-man Leander crew, consisting of three Oxford men John Cherry, Jan Sturrock, and John Couchman.

During World War II, Gaskell originally held a commission in the Royal Fusiliers, but transferred to the Reconnaisance Corps after two years and rose to the rank of major with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France in 1944.