Noel Noel-Buxton, 1st Baron Noel-Buxton

The Right Honourable
The Lord Noel-Buxton
PC
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
In office
22 January 1924  3 November 1924
Monarch George V
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by Sir Robert Sanders, Bt
Succeeded by Hon. E. F. L. Wood
In office
7 June 1929  5 June 1930
Monarch George V
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by Hon. Walter Guinness
Succeeded by Christopher Addison
Personal details
Born 9 January 1869 (1869-01-09)
Died 12 September 1948 (1948-09-13) (aged 79)
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
Labour
Spouse(s) Lucy Burn (1888-1960)
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge

Noel Edward Noel-Buxton, 1st Baron Noel-Buxton PC (9 January 1869 12 September 1948) was a British Liberal and later Labour politician. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and between 1929 and 1930.

Background and education

Born Noel Edward Buxton, the second son of Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet, he was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[1]

Political career

In 1896, Buxton acted as Aide-de-Camp to his father during his time as Governor of South Australia. He served on the Whitechapel Board of Guardians and Central Unemployment Body, and was a Member of the Home Office Departmental Committee on Lead Poisoning.

During the First World War (1914–1915), he went on a political mission with his brother, Charles Roden Buxton, with the object of securing the neutrality of Bulgaria; in the course of this an attempt was made on their lives by a Turkish activist (October 1914), Hasan Tahsin, in which he was wounded and his brother was shot through the lung. After their return, they published a book describing the region and its recent history, The War and the Balkans (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1915). It begins with these words:

No one now denies the supreme importance of the Balkans as a factor in the European War. It may be that there were deep-seated hostilities between the Great Powers which would have, in any case, produced a European War, and that if the Balkans had not offered the occasion, the occasion would have been found elsewhere. The fact remains that the Balkans did provide the occasion. A great part of the Serbo-Croat race found itself under the Austrian Empire, and with its increasing consciousness of nationality became more and more dissatisfied with its lot. The independent kingdom of Serbia for its part has taken active steps to spread abroad the idea of uniting its brothers under its own flag. It was Austria's ambition to crush this dangerous little State, the one rallying point of a vigorous and determined race.[2]

Buxton stood unsuccessfully for Ipswich in 1900. He was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Whitby in 1905, a seat he held until 1906.[3] He was out of parliament until the January 1910 general election, when he was returned for Norfolk North.[4] He joined the Labour Party in 1919 and in 1922 he successfully contested his Norfolk North seat as a Labour candidate. He continued to represent the constituency until 1930.[4] When Labour came to power under Ramsay MacDonald in January 1924, Buxton was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries,[5] with a seat in the cabinet, and sworn of the Privy Council.[6] He remained as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries until the government fell in December 1924. He resumed the post in 1929 (once again as a member of the cabinet) when Labour returned to office under MacDonald,[7] and held it until 1930, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Noel-Buxton, of Aylsham in the County of Norfolk.[8] He changed his surname at this point to 'Noel-Buxton', so enabling that to be his title.[9]

Buxton's publications include Europe and the Turks; With the Bulgarian Staff; Travels and Reflections, 1929; and he was part-author of The Heart of the Empire, Travel and Politics in Armenia, The War and the Balkans, Balkan Problems and European Peace, and Oppressed Peoples and the League of Nations.

Family

Lord Noel-Buxton married Lucy Edith Pelham Burn in 1914. She succeeded him as Member of Parliament for Norfolk North in 1930.[10] Noel-Buxton died in September 1948, aged 79, and was succeeded in the barony by his son, Rufus. Lady Noel-Buxton died in December 1960.


A view of Vitosha from the boulevard named after the brothers Noel & Charles Buxton in Sofia, Bulgaria (42°39.943′N 23°16.521′E / 42.665717°N 23.275350°E / 42.665717; 23.275350)

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Ernest Beckett
Member of Parliament for Whitby
19051906
Succeeded by
Gervase Beckett
Preceded by
Sir William Brampton Gurdon
Member of Parliament for North Norfolk
January 19101918
Succeeded by
Douglas King
Preceded by
Douglas King
Member of Parliament for North Norfolk
19221930
Succeeded by
The Baroness Noel-Buxton
Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Robert Sanders, Bt
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
1924
Succeeded by
Hon. E. F. L. Wood
Preceded by
Hon. Walter Guinness
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
1929-30
Succeeded by
Christopher Addison
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
(new creation)
Baron Noel-Buxton
1930-1948
Succeeded by
Rufus Alexander Buxton
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