Andy was born in Neath, Wales, and moved with his family to Southgate in 1945. He was educated at University College School and in 1958 left to study law. He qualified as a solicitor in October 1965 and joined Unilever in 1968.
Lynn and Andy moved to Braughing in 1975 and they soon became active members of the Parish community with strong ties to St. Marys Church. Retirement gave Andy the time to further his interest in local affairs and he seized the opportunity of becoming chairman of Braughing Parish Council in 2003. He was extremely active and steered the Council through several difficult planning issues. His legal knowledge was invaluable in negotiations over lease renewal of the allotment land and it was largely his work which blocked the intended development of the site at Gravelly Lane, the rejected appeal decision on which came just after his death.
He was also active as chairman of the Friends of St Mary’s and maintained a keen interest in cricket and rugby. He enjoyed his garden - roses in particular - but spent much of his time manicuring his lawn so that, in his mind and that of his beloved grandsons, it really was Lords cricket ground. He was a member of East Herts Golf Club and having improved his game in recent months was looking to a revised handicap and trophies. He had been a member of Southgate Round Table and then Ware 41 Club both of which he chaired. To see him vacuuming the Church floor while helping Lynn in her volunteer cleaning duties was a far cry from his illustrious career.
With a quick legal mind and ability as a tough negotiator, he became a specialist in mergers and acquisitions. He was appointed regional counsel for Europe and then for Latin America. As one of Unilever’s most mobile executives, his life was not without hazards. In 1985, while helping with the purchase of a Mexican food business, he was trapped in the upper floors of a hotel during the Mexico City earthquake. About 10,000 people were killed but Andy escaped unhurt, although listed in the local newspapers as dead.
Andy led negotiations for Unilever with Robert Maxwell, the disgraced publishing tycoon, over the purchase of Thames Board Mills. It was, he recalled, a menacing experience. In 1989 he helped Unilever to secure Fabergé and Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics brands. The deal pushed Unilever up the global league of cosmetics companies, from fourth to equal first place.
 Four Unilever subsidiaries were sold to ICI in 1997 for nearly £5 billion in a deal that proved better for the seller than the buyer. Andy was one of those leading the sale, which ICI investors approved, and shares in the company rose. By 1999 the businesses faltered, and ICI began to struggle with the large debts taken on to finance the purchase. Analysts suggest that this deal led ICI into difficulty while it helped Unilever to trade through difficult years in greater comfort.
He completed some of his most important work in the early 1990s and on retirement in 2000 he had risen to become Unilever’s second most senior legal executive. he was widely known throughout the Unilever organisation, which then employed about 300,000 people. Described by a colleague as “the well-travelled face of Unilever’s central management team”, he had a reputation for instilling confidence in those he visited.
In 2005 Andy became the third strand in our geriatric adventure club, exploring Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sikkim and latterly Bolivia, where he met with his tragic accident. His thanksgiving service at St Mary’s on 1 December was attended by around 350 members of his family, friends, parishioners and ex-work colleagues. We offer Andy’s wife Lynn and their daughter Kathryn and family our sincere condolences – to them his loss is devastating and he is irreplaceable. The village has lost a great champion and we have lost our traveling chum.
When he left Unilever Andy was presented with a blue plaque for his house on which it says “Andrew Peat – itinerant lawyer and bon viveur”. Says it all.

Ned Dailly, Vic Flintham