Peter John Winton sadly passed away on 8th December 2016, aged 69 years. Not only a valued colleague at Forrester Sylvester Mackett, but dear husband to Virginia, father to Holly and her husband Stephen, and to Luke and his wife Indira, grandfather to Pheobe and Tobias.
A man of enormous integrity, amazing vitality and of distinguished presence, he was also someone who could light up a room with what was said to be an incredible smile.
Peter fought a spirited battle with lung cancer which he thought he had won, but sadly he was told he had inoperable brain tumours and died on December 8 2016.
Peter was Partner in charge of the Swindon office and also Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Wiltshire Freemasons.
Peter read Law at Liverpool University, undertook his Articles in Bristol and was admitted as a Solicitor in November 1972. In those days solicitors generally undertook several areas of law and Peter, although dealing mainly in property law, also attended at the local Magistrates Court and the County Court, the Employment Tribunal and did some Family work as well as Wills, Probate and the Administration of Estates.
In January 1973 he moved to Cornwall where he opened an office in Helston for a local firm based in Redruth.
In June 1978 Peter joined a firm of solicitors based in Wroughton, outside Swindon where Peter Elliott had set up his practice in 1964 following his short employment with Forrester & Forrester in Malmesbury. Peter continued to represent clients in the same manner as in Cornwall, but beginning to narrow those fields over the following years as those areas of law became more complex, and it became clear that a solicitor could not be an expert in every aspect of the legal system, eventually restricting his expertise to domestic and commercial property law, company and commercial fields and Wills and Probate.
In 1990 Peter Elliott retired and Peter Winton became the senior partner taking John Wilding as a partner, and then merging the practice with a sole practitioner, Helen Raynes, and setting up a new office in Commercial Road Swindon. The firm continued to flourish, and following the retirement of John Wilding and Helen Raynes in 1999 he continued to run the practice as a sole practitioner, acquiring the premises at Canford House 13 Devizes Road Swindon in 2001.
Following the merger with Winton Raynes and Forrester Sylvester Mackett on 1st October 2014, Peter continued to offer the same level of service to his clients.
Peter will be dearly missed by all his colleagues at Forrester Sylvester Mackett, his family, friends and all who knew him.
