Robert Vere Buxton (29 April 1883 – 1 October 1953), known as Robin Buxton, was an English cricketer, soldier and banker. Buxton was born in

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...

, London, a son of

Francis Buxton Francis William Buxton (5 August 1847 – 14 November 1911) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Buxton was the son of Sir Edward Buxton, 2nd Baronet, and the grandson of the anti-slavery campaigner Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Barone ...

, Liberal Member of Parliament, barrister and banker. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

. He was a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er. He was in the Eton XI of 1902, scoring 3 and 74 against Harrow. At Oxford he played in the

University Match The University Match is an annual cricket fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. First played in 1827, it is the oldest varsity match in the world. Until 2001, when first-class cricket was reorga ...

with Cambridge, scored 33 and 28, and received his

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

in 1906. In 1906 and 1907, he played a few times for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. Buxton served in the

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

Civil Service, 1907–11. He then joined

Martins Bank Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of "The Grasshopper", that could trace its origins back to Thomas Gresham and the London goldsmiths, from which it developed into a bank known as Martin's Bank ...

, becoming a director in 1913. In November 1911, Buxton was commissioned in the West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry in the

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry in ...

. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he served as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in the West Kent Yeomanry before he was seconded to the

Imperial Camel Corps The Imperial Camel Corps Brigade (ICCB) was a camel-mounted infantry brigade that the British Empire raised in December 1916 during the First World War for service in the Middle East. From a small beginning the unit eventually grew to a brigad ...

in 1916. Serving in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, he became a colleague of

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First W ...

. In 1918, a long-distance

raid RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

to sever the Hejaz railway, was launched. On 24 July, Nos. 5 and 7 Companies of the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade commanded by Major Buxton, marched from the Suez Canal to arrive at

Aqaba Aqaba ( , ; , ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative center of the Aqaba Governorate. The city had a population of 148, ...

on 30 July.Falls, p. 408 On 8 August 1918, the Imperial Camel Corps, supported by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, seized the well-defended Hejaz railway station at

Mudawwara Mudawwara () is the most southerly settlement in Jordan. It is administratively part of the Ma'an Governorate. The village had a population of 691 in the 2015 census. Etymology The Arabic toponym, ''Mudawwara'', translates approximately to "a ...

. They captured a large number of Ottoman prisoners and two guns and destroyed the water towers, but suffered 17 casualties in the operation. Buxton's two companies of Imperial Camel Corps continued on towards

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, where they hoped to destroy the main bridge. However from the city they were attacked by aircraft, forcing them to withdraw; they eventually arrived at

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

on 6 September, a march of in 44 days. He was awarded the DSO in 1919: He was also awarded the 3rd class of the

Order of the Nile The Order of the Nile (''Kiladat El Nil'') was established in 1915 and was one of the Kingdom of Egypt's principal orders until the monarchy was abolished in 1953. It was then reconstituted as the Republic of Egypt's highest state honor. Sulta ...

of Egypt and made an officer of the

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate Italian unification, the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for ...

. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in October 1919. After the war, Buxton returned to

and his association with T. E. Lawrence continued as his banker and effectively the financier of the Subscribers' Edition of ''

Seven Pillars of Wisdom ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empi ...

''. He was drawn by William Roberts for ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom''. Buxton was invited to revise chapters of the book. From 1945, he was deputy chairman of Martins Bank and chairman of its London board. He married Irene Marguerite Pix, widow of Sir Richard Levinge, 10th baronet, in 1916. He had no issue. He died in

Itchen Abbas Itchen Abbas is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Itchen Valley, in the Winchester district, in the county of Hampshire, England. The village is on the River Itchen about north-east of Winchester. Parish church The Ch ...

, Hampshire.

References

*Falls, Cyril (1930) ''Official History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence; Military Operations Egypt & Palestine from June 1917 to the End of the War'' Vol. 2. London: H. M. Stationary *Murphy, David (2008) ''The Arab Revolt 1916–18 Lawrence sets Arabia Ablaze''. Osprey: London. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Robert 1883 births 1953 deaths English cricketers Middlesex cricketers Oxford University cricketers People educated at Eton College Military personnel from the City of Westminster Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford British colonial governors and administrators in Africa Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry officers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order T. E. Lawrence People from Belgravia Cricketers from the City of Westminster Recipients of Italian civil awards and decorations Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Hertfordshire cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Robert Vere 20th-century English sportsmen