Sir Thomas Buxton, 4th Baronet

Sir Thomas Fowell Victor Buxton, 4th Baronet, JP (8 April 1865 – 31 May 1919) was a British aristocrat and philanthropist.

Sir Thomas Buxton Bt, JP
Preceded by	Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet
Succeeded by	Sir Thomas Buxton, 5th Baronet
Personal details
Born	8 April 1865
Died	31 May 1919 (aged 54)
Spouse(s)	Anne Louisa Matilda O'Rorke ​ ​ (m. 1888; his death 1919)​
Relations	Sir Edward North Buxton (grandfather) Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough (grandfather) Lady Frances Jocelyn (grandmother)
Children	7
Parents	Lady Victoria Noel Buxton Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet
Education	Harrow School
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Early life

Victor Buxton, as he was known, was born on 8 April 1865. He was the son of Lady Victoria Noel Buxton and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton of Woodredon Hall, Waltham Abbey, County of Essex. His father served as Governor of South Australia between 1895 and 1899.

The great-grandson of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom) and social reformer, his paternal grandparents were Catherine (née Gurney) Buxton (daughter of Samuel Gurney) and Sir Edward North Buxton, also an MP. His maternal grandfather was the Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough and Lady Frances Jocelyn (daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden).[1]

Sir Thomas attended Harrow School and graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1887.[2]

Career

A director of the family-owned Truman, Hanbury, Buxton Brewery, Sir Thomas was a philanthropist supporting several organizations in the Anglican evangelical wing of the Church of England.[3] He served as Temporary Major in the 2nd Battalion, Essex Volunteer Regiment, was a Justice of the Peace, and in 1905 the High Sheriff of Essex.[1]

Upon the death of his father in 1915, he inherited the baronetcy.

Personal life

On 10 October 1888, he married Anne Louisa Matilda O'Rorke, daughter of the Rev. Henry Thomas and Lucy Elizabeth O'Rorke, of Norfolk, England.[1] Together, they were the parents of seven children:

• Thomas Fowell Buxton (1889–1945), who served in World War I, became a barrister, and succeeded his father as 5th baronet in 1919.
• Roden Henry Victor Buxton (1890–1990), who served in the Royal Navy in both World Wars, retiring with the rank of Captain and invested as a Commander, Order of the British Empire.[4]
• Clarence Edward Victor Buxton (1892–1967), attended Eton College, where he was an award-winning rower, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He gained the rank of Major during World War I. Settling in Kenya after the war, he served as a Commissioner in the Masai District and in 1937 became Acting Provincial Commissioner. He was seconded to Palestine as Acting District Commissioner in 1938, followed by his retirement from the Colonial Service in March 1940.[5]
• Lucy Victoria Buxton (1893–1978), who married diplomat Charles Henry Bentinck.
• Jocelyn Murray Victor Buxton (1896–1916), attended Marlborough College. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant attached to the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) and died on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.[6] Buxton's "A Trench Narrative" was read at the 100th Anniversary of the Somme service at Westminster Abbey on 1 July 2016.[7][8]
• Maurice Victor Buxton (1898–1919), attended Eton College where he was Captain of the Boats and President of Pop, left Trinity College Cambridge to be commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards during World War I. He was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in the Battle of Maubeuge in November 1918. Buxton died of pneumonia on 8 August 1919 less than a month after rowing with his brother Charles in the Paris Inter-Allied Games.[9][10]
• Rupert Erroll Victor Buxton (1900–1921), who drowned near Oxford at the age of 21 with his close friend Michael Llewelyn Davies.[11][12]

Sir Thomas died on 31 May 1919 at age 54, as a result of a freak accident with his own new motor car.[13][11] Lady Buxton died 12 January 1956.

Descendants

Through his second son, he was a grandfather of Sir Jocelyn Charles Roden Buxton (1924–2014), who succeeded as the 7th baronet in 1996.

Sources

1. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 626.
2. "Buxton, Thomas Fowell Victor (BKSN883TF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Flew, Sarah. Philanthropy and the Funding of the Church of England, 1856 - 1914. Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited. 2014
4. "Person Page". thepeerage.com. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
5. "C.E.V. Buxton Papers". bodley.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
6. "Casualty". cwgc.org. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
7. "Centenary commemoration of the Battle of the Somme". July 2016.
8. https://www.westminster-abbey.org/media/4695/somme-centenary-service-evening.pdf
9. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 [database on-line], Volume: 3a; Page: 489
10. The Essex County Chronicle. Friday, 15 August 1919
11. Rupert Buxton at Neverpedia
12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. "A Baronet's Death". The Advertiser. Adelaide, South Australia. 28 August 1919. p. 6.

External links