John Bernard Arbuthnot

For other people named John Arbuthnot, see John Arbuthnot (disambiguation).

Maj. John Bernard Arbuthnot MVO (London, 17 May 1875 16 September 1950) was a British soldier, banker, and journalist.

Life

He was the son of Colonel George Arbuthnot and wife Caroline Emma Nepean Aitchison.

Arbuthnot served in the Scots Guards, reaching the rank of Major. In 1900 and 1901, he fought in the Second Boer War, and later in the First World War, where he was mentioned in despatches. Invested as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1902, Arbuthnot was Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Hong Kong but Arbuthnot Road is not named after him. He was also a merchant banker.[1]

As a journalist on the Daily Express, in 1917 he founded and was author to its By the Way column, writing it pseudonymously as 'Beachcomber', before he was promoted to deputy editor and passed the role to D. B. Wyndham-Lewis in 1919.[2]

Family

In Hong Kong on 8 June 1903 he married Olive Blake (5 November 1875 - 12 September 1953), daughter of Sir Henry Arthur Blake and wife Edith Bernal Osborne. They had six children:[3][4]

References

  1. Charles Mosley, 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 120.
  2. Charles Mosley, 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 120.
  3. Charles Mosley, 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 120.
  4. Arbuthnot: Mrs. P. S-M. Arbuthnot, Memories of the Arbuthnots of Kincardineshire and Aberdeenshire (London, 1920), p. 311.