Sir Peter George Yarranton (30 September 1924 – 1 June 2003) was chairman of the United Kingdom Sports Council from 1989 to 1994, and a notable figure in the world of rugby union, both as a player and as an administrator, for more than 40 years. He was born in Acton in London, the son of Edward John Yarranton (1884-1954) and Nora Ellen (née Atkins) (1900-1978), his father's second wife. His father had left the family's bookbinding business to become a senior commercial traveller for Winsor & Newton, the supplier of artists' materials. An older half-brother was Donald Yarranton, who found fame later in life as the actor Howard Lang, playing Captain Baines in The Onedin Line. Rugby playing career Yarranton was educated at Holy Innocents School, Kingsbury, northwest London, where he was head chorister and at Willesden Technical College. In 1942, he joined the Royal Air Force and subsequently flew Mitchell and Liberator bombers in the Burma campaign. He captained the RAF swimming and water polo teams, and was introduced – at the age of 24 – to rugby. He developed into a powerful, mobile second row forward, capable of holding his own in the rough and tumble of the sport as well as claiming the ball with prodigious leaps in the line-out. He formed a lifelong connection with the Wasps club, whom he captained for much of the late 1950s, and he also turned out for London, Middlesex and the RAF. In 1954 and 1955, he played for England against the other Home Nations, and against France and New Zealand. He kept fit well into his forties, when he became club secretary of Wasps, and in 1963 came out of retirement to play in a match for the Barbarians, the celebrated scratch side which he had also earlier captained. Business career Yarranton left the RAF in 1957 in the rank of flight lieutenant and joined Shell-Mex and BP as an operations trainee. He came to specialise in industrial relations and rose through the ranks in this field and from 1975 until 1977, was the manager of Shell UK Oil's plant and engineering division. In 1978, he left this post to work for another arm of Shell, the Lensbury sports and social club, based on near his home at Teddington. It was here that Yarranton began to put his business skills at the service of sport, and under his