Ronald Carlile Buxton (20 August 1923 – 10 January 2017) was a Chartered Structural Engineer, successful businessman, and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Early life and background
Buxton was the son of British Army officer Captain Murray Buxton and Janet, daughter of Sir Edward Carlile, 1st Baronet, a former MP for St Albans. Buxton was educated at Eton and, after fighting in India during World War II (reaching the rank of captain in the REME and receiving the MC), went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1945, taking an MA.
Political career
Buxton came to national attention for a spectacular showing at the polls, prompting Sir Alex Douglas-Home to declare "The best epitaph on hundred days of socialist government...my friend the member for Leyton". The unconcealed joy was not to last; he was a Member of Parliament for a little over a year, after winning an unexpected by-election victory in 1965.
Buxton was the Conservative candidate in the safe Labour constituency of Leyton at the 1955 general election, losing by 8,244 votes to the long-serving Labour MP Reginald Sorensen. He was unsuccessful again at the 1959 election and at the October 1964 general election, when Sorensen's majority was 3,919 votes. Buxton had cast around for another seat but was refused the nomination for the constituency where he lived, and failed to secure the Conservative nomination for South-West Norfolk.
