Peter Henry Lenton was born at New Hunstanton, Norfolk, on 20 September 1910. He was the son of Walter Henry Lenton, a pharmacist and was educated at King Edward VII School at King's Lynn where he won the Gold Medal given by George V and personally presented to him by the King. After leaving school he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and while there represented Cambridge University at soccer as well as playing for Cambridge Town and Corinthian Casuals. His clinical studies were at the Middlesex Hospital and while there he captained the Hospital Cricket Club and also represented his hospital at Rugby football and water polo. After qualifying he was house surgeon to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor but shortly after the outbreak of war served in the RAMC from 1940 to 1946. In 1942 he married Joan Nethercot by whom he had a son and daughter, George and Hilary, and in 1945 after the end of the war, while still serving in the RAMC, he passed the FRCS. After demobilisation he was surgical registrar to Professor R Milnes Walker at Bristol Royal Infirmary and first assistant at St George's Hospital before being appointed consultant surgeon at Horton General Hospital, Banbury, in 1948. Before he came to Banbury the surgical service there had been performed by general practitioners and after his appointment he carried most of the surgical workload of the hospital until 1972 when a second consultant was appointed. His particular interest was the upper gastrointestinal tract and his patients were followed up meticulously. After his retirement in 1975 he was able to devote his time to golf and fly-fishing until shortly before his death on 23 February 1988.