Peter “Pete” Elston

Peter Elston, of Lake St. Louis, died Tuesday Dec. 3, 2013. He was 86. Peter was born October 23rd, 1927 in Battersea, London England. He attended Sir Walter St. Johns School and Charterhouse College. After living through the London Blitz he volunteered for the British Army a few months before the end of the war where he served with the Royal West Kent Regiment.
He enjoyed Army life and decided to sign up for a regular tour of duty. Peter was offered a Royal Commission and promoted to 2nd Lieutenant with the Parachute Regiment. The Regiment was sent to Greece to try to secure peace from the post war political problems and later moved to quell the violence in Palestine. Peter was transferred to Egypt in 1948 where he had many more adventures until he left the Army in 1952.
Peter applied and was accepted into the London Metropolitan Police. After some years as a bobby and a probationary detective, Peter was confirmed and moved to New Scotland Yard Central Office. It was about this time that Peter met Barbara, who was also a detective, on a training course and they married. Because of the varied duty schedules they decided that one should quit and find employment in another field. They loved police service and as neither could give it up they decided both should resign and move to Canada in 1960.
Peter began to work for Wausau Insurance Company as an Investigator. As a pastime they both began to breed and show Basset Hounds. They spent many hours at dog shows and at one time they owned the Top Basset in Canada. In 1979, Peter and his family moved to St. Louis to become a vice president and lead the St. Louis branch. He enjoyed his time in Missouri and became a longtime Cardinals and Rams fan.
Shortly after retiring he and Barbara moved to Lake Saint Louis. Peter spent a lot of time playing bridge with his bridge partner (Bob Jacobs) and the rest of his friends at the Lake Forrest Country Club and the Lake Saint Louis Community Center.
He is survived by his wife (Barbara) and his two sons (Andrew and Philip) as well as four grandchildren.