Sir Thomas Buxton, 4th Baronet

Who was Sir Thomas Buxton, 4th Baronet?

Sir Thomas Fowell Victor Buxton, 4th Baronet, – who went by the name Victor Buxton – was the great-grandson of Sir Fowell Buxton, a British MP and social reformer; the grandson of Sir Edward North Buxton, also an MP; and the son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, a Governor of South Australia.

He graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1887. He married Anne Louisa Matilda O'Rorke on 10 October 1888 and they had 7 children: Thomas Fowell, Roden Henry Victor, Clarence Edward Victor, Lucy Victoria, Jocelyn Murray Victor, Maurice Victor, and Rupert Erroll Victor. Jocelyn and Maurice died in World War I. Rupert drowned near Oxford at the age of 21 with his close friend Michael Llewelyn Davies, the foster son of writer J. M. Barrie. This happened at Sandford Lock, a section of the River Thames that was even then infamous as a drowning hazard; there were warning signs and a conspicuous memorial for previous victims. Friends and family judged this to be either a swimming accident, or possibly a suicide pact.

Buxton served as Temporary Major in the 2nd Battalion, Essex Volunteer Regiment. He was a Justice of the Peace, and in 1905 the High Sheriff of Essex.