Arthur Peterson (civil servant)
{{Short description|British public servant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Sir Arthur William Peterson KCB MVO (22 May 1916 - 8 May 1986) was a British civil servant who served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office. As such he was the senior civil servant and permanent head of the Home Office, one of the most senior civil service roles in government.{{efn|Quote from Professor Tony Dean, formerly Secretary of the Ontario Cabinet and Head of the Ontario Public Service: "The job of a Permanent Secretary of a department is huge in its own right."{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpubadm/1582/1582.pdf|page=19|title=Leadership of change: new arrangements for the roles of the Head of the Civil Service and the Cabinet Secretary|publisher=House of Commons|access-date=3 March 2023}}}} He also pioneered the use of psychologists in British prisons.
Career
Born in Calcutta, Peterson was educated at Shrewsbury School and Merton College, Oxford.{{Cite ODNB|title=Peterson, Sir Arthur William (1916–1986), public servant|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-66866|access-date=2021-04-15| year=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66866| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }} He was the younger brother of Alec Peterson, the educational reformer.
Peterson joined the civil service in 1938. During the First World War, he served in the Ministry of Home Security. He served as principal private secretary to the Home Secretary, from 1946 to 1949. In 1957, Peterson was a special adviser to Rab Butler, whilst Butler was Home Secretary. Peterson became a specialist on the management of prisons and was appointed Chairman of the Prison Commission.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chWEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA171|page=171|title=Adventures in Criminology|first= Sir Leon |last=Radzinowicz|year=2002|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1134639359}} He introduced the first psychologists to British prisons.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zh72bf8QXO4C&pg=PR7|page=vii|title=Psychological Research in Prisons|first=Graham J.|last= Towl|year=2008|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1405173223}}
Peterson went on to serve as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1972 to 1977.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0XBKEKTgOMC&pg=PP326|page=326|title=European Diary, 1977–1981|first=Roy|last= Jenkins|year=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1448201976}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74baAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA525|page=525|title=Gambling in America|volume= 3|publisher=United States Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling|year= 1976}} In that role, he suggested alterations to arrangements for Armistice Day – or even cancelling it altogether.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1506534/Cenotaph-service-was-almost-abandoned.html|title=Cenotaph service was almost abandoned|date=29 December 2005|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=3 March 2023}} In 1975, he also provided evidence to the United Kingdom Prison Services Committee and warned members of parliament about what activities prisoners in UK prisons might get involved in, without strict controls.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/jan/10/archive-1975-road-freedom-typewriter|title=The road to freedom is in a typewriter|date=10 January 1975|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=3 March 2023}} The evidence and papers he provided to members of parliament are held in the National Archives.{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1270713|title=Sir Arthur Peterson|publisher=National Archives|access-date=3 March 2023}}
He was Chairman of the British Refugee Council from 1981{{cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1984-04-12/debates/0cf66087-2c02-46ec-9e86-d9ab722ea641/VietnameseRefugees(Report)|title=Vietnamese Refugees (Report)
|volume=58|date=12 April 1984|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=4 February 2022}} to 1986.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIB8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA570|page=570|title=Secrecy and the Media: The Official History of the United Kingdom's D-Notice System|first= Nicholas John |last=Wilkinson|year=2009|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1134052547}} Between 1968 and 1985 he was Chairman of the Romney Street Group.{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=R.M. |title=The Romney Street Group, 1917–2017: A Centenary History |date=2017 |isbn=9781909277144 |publisher=Strathmore}}
Honours
Notes
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