Ronald Carlile Buxton (20 August 1923 – 10 January 2017) was a Chartered

Structural Engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of safety, technical, economic ...

, successful businessman, and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

.Obituary,

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

,18 Jan 2017

Early life and background

Buxton was the son of British Army officer Captain Murray Buxton and Janet, daughter of Sir Edward Carlile, 1st

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, a former MP for

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

. Buxton was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and, after fighting in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(reaching the rank of captain in the

REME The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

and receiving the MC), went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1945, taking an MA.

Political career

Buxton came to national attention for a spectacular showing at the polls, prompting Sir Alex Douglas-Home to declare "The best epitaph on hundred days of socialist government...my friend the member for Leyton". The unconcealed joy was not to last; he was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for a little over a year, after winning an unexpected

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

victory in 1965. Buxton was the Conservative candidate in the safe

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

constituency of Leyton at the 1955 general election, losing by 8,244 votes to the long-serving Labour MP

Reginald Sorensen Reginald William Sorensen, Baron Sorensen (19 June 1891 – 8 October 1971) was a Unitarian minister and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for over thirty years between 1929 and 1964. Early life ...

. He was unsuccessful again at the 1959 election and at the October 1964 general election, when Sorensen's majority was 3,919 votes. Buxton had cast around for another seat but was refused the nomination for the constituency where he lived, and failed to secure the Conservative nomination for South-West Norfolk. Shortly after the 1964 election, Sorensen was persuaded to accept a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

age to make way in a safe seat for the

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

Patrick Gordon Walker Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly thirty years, and served twice as a Cabinet Minister. He lost his Smethwi ...

, who had lost his seat in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

. However, the plan failed and on 25 January Buxton won the

1965 Leyton by-election The 1965 Leyton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 21 January 1965 for the British House of Commons constituency of Leyton in east London. The seat had become vacant when the constituency's long-serving Labour Member of Parliam ...

by a narrow margin of only 205 votes, on a reduced turnout.

David Dimbleby David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme ''Question Time''. He is the son of broadcaster R ...

, later to become the anchor (from 1979) of the BBC Election results programmes, reported the result live from a snowy

Leyton Town Hall Leyton Town Hall is a municipal building in Adelaide Road, Leyton, London. The building, which includes Leyton Great Hall, is a Grade II listed building. History The building was commissioned to replace an earlier town hall designed by John J ...

for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. Gordon Walker regained the seat for

at the 1966 general election, with a comfortable majority. Buxton stood again at the 1970 election, but lost again, by over 5,000 votes.

Professional life

Buxton joined the steel construction company H. Young & Co. as an engineer, and eventually became the firm's chairman. In

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

he built a bridge across a deep creek near

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, and for a while collected the tolls himself but decided to sell it. He identified with British settlers in Africa, and at the 1958 Conservative Party Conference asked that their position be safeguarded in independence negotiations. In July the same year he nearly died when flying his own plane to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, becoming lost in a storm between

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

with low fuel. He spotted a tanker, put a note in his shoe and dropped it on to the deck. When the engine died, the plane dropped into the sea and the crew rescued him from the water. This experience did not deter him from flying.

Personal life

He married on 20 June 1959, his distant cousin Phyllida, daughter of Captain Roden Henry Victor Buxton, CBE, RN, and Dorothy St John.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Volume 1, page 622. They had four children: * Peter Hildred Buxton (1960-) * Camilla Jane Buxton (1960-) * Vanessa Ann Buxton (1962-) * Robert Victor Buxton (1966-) Buxton purchased Kimberley Hall, Wymondham,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

- still owned by the Buxton family- in 1958. It had been due for demolition. Buxton aimed to restore it to some grandeur, but not before evicting from residence a rare colony of English bats. Buxton died on 10 January 2017 at the age of 93.

Notes

External links

UK General Elections since 1832

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Ronald C 1923 births 2017 deaths People educated at Eton College Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers officers Structural engineers UK MPs 1964–1966 British Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Military Cross 20th-century English businesspeople