Noel Edward Noel-Buxton, 1st Baron Noel-Buxton,
PC (9 January 1869 – 12 September 1948) was a British
Liberal and later
Labour politician. He served as
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries under
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
in 1924 and between 1929 and 1930.
Background and education
Born Noel Edward Buxton, the second son of
Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet and brother of
Charles Roden Buxton
Charles Roden Buxton (27 November 1875 – 16 December 1942) was an English philanthropist and radical British Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party. He survived an assassination attempt during a mission to the Balkans in 1 ...
, he was educated at
Harrow
Harrow may refer to:
Places
* Harrow, Victoria, Australia
* Harrow, Ontario, Canada
* The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland
* London Borough of Harrow, England
** Harrow, London, a town in London
** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency)
...
and at
Trinity College, Cambridge.
Political career
In 1896, Buxton acted as Aide-de-Camp to his father during his time as
Governor of South Australia
The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-gene ...
. He served on the
Whitechapel Board of Guardians and Central Unemployment Body, and was a Member of the
Home Office Departmental Committee on
Lead Poisoning
Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...
.
Buxton stood unsuccessfully for
Ipswich in 1900.
He was elected as Liberal
Member of Parliament for
Whitby in 1905, a seat he held until 1906. He was out of parliament until the
January 1910 general election
The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominat ...
, when he was returned for
Norfolk North
Norfolk North was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867, which divided the county of Norfo ...
.
He joined the
Labour Party in 1919 and in 1922 he successfully contested his Norfolk North seat as a Labour candidate. He continued to represent the constituency until 1930.
When Labour came to power under
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
in January 1924, Buxton was appointed
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, with a seat in the cabinet, and sworn of the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
. He remained as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries until the government fell in December 1924. He resumed the post in 1929 (once again as a member of the cabinet) when Labour returned to office under MacDonald, and held it until 1930, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Noel-Buxton, of Aylsham in the County of Norfolk. He changed his surname at this point to 'Noel-Buxton', so enabling that to be his title.
Balkans
The Balkans became a very important part of Buxton's career. In 1912, as Buxton had been warning,
war broke out between the newly independent Balkan countries of
Bulgaria,
Greece,
Montenegro and
Serbia and the
Ottoman Empire. Buxton was Chairman of the Balkan War Relief Committee. Shortly after the war had broken out, he visited Bulgaria with
Mabel St Clair Stobart, founder of the
Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps
Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps (WSWCC) was a British women's medical organization established in 1910 by Mabel St Clair Stobart.
The WSWCC would be entirely female. Most of the initial members of the corps came from First Aid Nursing Yeom ...
. He helped her convince the government to agree to send an all-female medical unit to the war.
During the
First World War (1914–1915), he went on a political mission with his brother Charles with the object of securing the neutrality of
Bulgaria. While in
Bucharest,
Romania in October 1914, an assassination attempt was made on them, by
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
activist,
Hasan Tahsin
Hasan Tahsin was the code name of Osman Nevres (1888 – 15 May 1919), a Turkish nationalist, patriot, and journalist of Dönmeh descent.
Hailed as a Turkish war hero, his name has been given by the Turkish Armed Forces to the Information ...
. Buxton was wounded and his brother was shot through the lung.
They both recovered and continued to have an interest in the region.
After their return, they published a book describing the region and its recent history, ''The War and the Balkans'' (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1915). It begins with these words:
No one now denies the supreme importance of the Balkans as a factor in the European War. It may be that there were deep-seated hostilities between the Great Powers which would have, in any case, produced a European War and that if the Balkans had not offered the occasion, the occasion would have been found elsewhere. The fact remains that the Balkans did provide the occasion. A great part of the Serbo-Croat race found itself under the Austrian Empire, and with its increasing consciousness of nationality became more and more dissatisfied with its lot. The independent kingdom of Serbia for its part has taken active steps to spread abroad the idea of uniting its brothers under its own flag. It was Austria's ambition to crush this dangerous little State, the one rallying point of a vigorous and determined race.
Buxton's publications include ''Europe and the Turks''; ''With the Bulgarian Staff''; ''Travels and Reflections'', 1929; and he was part-author of ''The Heart of the Empire'', ''Travel and Politics in Armenia'', ''The War and the Balkans'', ''Balkan Problems and European Peace'', and ''Oppressed Peoples and the League of Nations''.
Family
Noel was the great-grandson of the
abolitionist, Sir
Thomas Fowell Buxton he married
Lucy Edith Pelham Burn in 1914.
She succeeded him as
Member of Parliament for
Norfolk North
Norfolk North was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867, which divided the county of Norfo ...
in 1930. The couple had three sons and three daughters.
Noel-Buxton died in September 1948, aged 79, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Rufus Alexander(1917-1980). Lady Noel-Buxton died in December 1960.
Noel Buxton Trust
Inspired by the abolitionism of his great-grandfather, he established the Noel Buxton Trust in 1919. This had a commitment to "a worldwide view of human welfare". The initial grant was made to the Fight the Famine Council, led by
Eglantyne Jebb and his sister-in-law,
Dorothy Buxton
Dorothy Frances Buxton ( née Jebb; 3 March 1881 – 8 April 1963) was an English humanitarian, social activist and commentator on Germany.
Life
Dorothy Frances Jebb was born 3 August 1881 in Ellesmere, Shropshire, the youngest of three sisters ...
, which later became the
Save the Children Fund. The charity funded the Family Rights Group, the Community Chaplaincy Association (working with ex-prisoners), and Excellent, a charity supporting sustainable development with subsistence communities in Africa.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Noel
1869 births
1948 deaths
People educated at Harrow School
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
British Secretaries of State
Noel-Buxton, Noel Buxton, 1st Baron
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Agriculture ministers of the United Kingdom
UK MPs 1900–1906
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
UK MPs 1922–1923
UK MPs 1923–1924
UK MPs 1924–1929
UK MPs 1929–1931
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Younger sons of baronets
Noel
Noel-Buxton
War correspondents of the Balkan Wars
Barons created by George V