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Ronald buxton british politician top 9 facts
Ronald Carlile Buxton (20 August 1923 – 10 January 2017) was a Chartered Structural Engineer, a successful businessman and a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
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Buxton relished the lifestyle of a country gentleman on his Norfolk estate. He 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 for a little over a year, after winning an unexpected by-election victory in 1965.
Buxton was the Conservative candidate in the safe Labour constituency of Leyton at the 1955 general election, losing by 8,244 votes to the long-serving Labour MP Reginald Sorensen. 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 peerage to make way in a safe seat for the Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker, who had lost his seat in Smethwick. However, the plan failed and on 25 January Buxton won the 1965 Leyton by-election by a narrow margin of only 205 votes, on a reduced turnout. David Dimbleby, later to become the anchor (from 1979) of the BBC Election results programmes, reported the result live from a snowy Leyton town hall for the BBC.
Gordon Walker regained the seat for Labour at the 1966 general election, with a comfortable majority. Buxton stood again at the 1970 election, but lost again, by over 5,000 votes.
Family
Buxton was the son of a British army officer, Captain Murray Buxton and Janet, daughter of Sir Edward Carlile, bart, a former MP for St Albans. Ronald was educated at Eton. He joined the army in India during World War II, fighting in the Burma Campaign, Captain Buxton REME was awarded MC. On returning home in 1945 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge graduating MA hons. Buxton purchased Kimberley Hall, Wymondham, Norfolk in 1958 and his family still live there. The venerable old stately home was due for demolition. Buxton aimed to restore it to some grandeur, but not before evicting from residence a rare colony of English bats.
He married on 20 June 1959, Phyllida, daughter of Captain Henry Roden by Dorothy St John. They had issue of four children:
It was announced on the 17th January 2017 that Buxton died on the 10th January at the age of 93.
Professional Life
Buxton joined the steel construction company H. Young & Co. as an engineer. Eventually he became the firm's chairman. In East Africa he built a bridge across a deep creek near Mombasa. For a while he collected the tolls himself but eventually it was sold. He identified with British settlers in Africa and spoke up for them at the 1958 Conservative Party Conference, asking that their position be safeguarded in independence negotiations.
In July the same year he nearly died. He was flying his own plane to Kenya. He got lost in a storm between Sicily and Libya and fuel ran low. 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. It didn't stop him from flying.