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- Barrier Miner
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Tuesday, December 15, 1953
Earl’s Grandson Found Dead In Bunk
London, Monday - Peter Francis Bassett, 18-year-old grandson of the Earl of Dartmouth, was found shot dead in his bunk as a dance band played at Eaton Hall officer cadet school.
The band was playing for the officers half-hourly ball, which Basset, had not attended.
He had been at Eaton Hall for 15 weeks, and would have passed out as a Welsh Guards officer this week.
A sporting gun lay near his body.
His father, Colonel Ronald Lambart Basset, is a company director, farmer, and racehorse breeder.
His mother, Lady Elizabeth Basset, is the second daughter of the Earl of Dartmouth.
Mirror
Perth, Australia
Saturday, December 26, 1953
Grandson of Earl Shot
London, Today: Officer cadet Peter Francis Basset, 18-year-old grandson of the Earl of Dartmouth, was found dead with gunshot wounds to the head at Eaton Hall Officer Cadet, near Chester.
Most of the other cadets were at a ball at the same building.
Basset was discovered in his own room in the building, high above the dance floor. In the room next door a radio was playing loudly enough to make the shot inaudible to the dancers.
Basset was one of the few cadets who did not go to the ball .He was found in his bunk with his sporting gun nearby.
A Western Command spokesman described him as a very promising cadet who’d been at Eaton Hall nearly 4 months, was due to pass out the week of the tragedy, and would have been commissioned in the Welsh Guards.
His parents, Colonel R.S. Basset and Lady Elizabeth Basset were staggered by the tragedy. She is the second daughter of the Earl of Dartmouth, is a well-known racehorse owner who married in 1921.
Colonel Basset, a company director, served during the first World War as a lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Gregs) and in the Welsh Guards in World War II.
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