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

Early life

Victor Buxton, as he was known, was born on 8 April 1865. He was the son of Lady Victoria Noel 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). Sir Thomas attended Harrow School and graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1887.

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

Kenya

Sir Thomas Fowell Victor Buxton opened Buxton High School Mombasa in 1904 having in 1903 bought a 4.5 acre plot on Mombasa Island (additional to the school) and a farm up the coast at Vipingo which still exists. He was one of the earliest English settlers to arrive in Limuru, in 1902. His land, Kubuku Farm, bordered the railway line and consisted of the usual square mile surveyed by Government and sold to intending settlers. He brought Waswahili up from the coast to grow English potatoes in the rich forest land. Sir Victor gave land to be used for a Deacons' school - now the thriving St. Paul's University, Limuru. His son, Clarence, developed the land as a dairy and tea estate.

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. Together, they were the parents of seven children: Sir Thomas died on 31 May 1919 at age 54, as a result of a freak accident with his own new motor car. 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.