Early Life and Career
Peterson was the son of John Peterson an Indian Civil Service official and Flora, and was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended Radley College and Balliol College, Oxford and after spending two years as a management trainee became a teacher at Shrewsbury School in 1932. At the beginning of World War II he joined the Ministry of Information and joined the propaganda branch of the Special Operations Executive. He played an important role in South-East Asia, and was largely responsible for the Indian Forward Broadcasting Unit, which was very successful in the Burma campaign. He became Deputy Director of psychological warfare for South-East Asia Command and was awarded OBE in 1946. After the war he was appointed headmaster at Adams' Grammar School. He spent two years as Director General, Information Services in Malaya from 1952 to 1954 during the Malayan emergency. He was later headmaster at Dover College, where he set up an international sixth form. In 1958, he was named head of the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford University, a post he held until 1973. He was the Liberal Party's spokesman on education for some time and served as chairman of the Army Education Board for many years.
He married Corinna May Cochrane, daughter of Sir Arthur Cochrane of the College of Arms. Corrie was a member of the Society of Analytical Psychology and was a tutor at Beech Lawn College Oxford during the 1960s. They had two sons and a daughter.
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