As the Conservative Party's official historian, he was one of the leading figures--drawn from the government, party, police and Church of England along with Peel's descendants--who formed part of a congregation of some 300 at the parish church in Tamworth (where Peel was MP).
The service was held to mark the 225th anniversary of Peel's birth. It was organised by Dr David Biggs, a leading member of the flourishing Peel Society, which is based in Tamworth.
In his contribution to the service Lord Lexden underlined Peel's academic achievement: he was the first person to take a double first at Oxford.
An extract was read from Peel's famous Tamworth manifesto of 1834,one of the founding documents of the modern Conservative Party.
Peel is remembered as a great Tory reformer.Change, he said in 1833, should be carried out "gradually, dispassionately,and deliberately, in order that the reform might be lasting".