Maverick Who Became A Baronet (6 October 1976)
I wonder how many local people who saw the widely acclaimed thriller, Rogue Male, a week or two ago knew they were watching the 4th Leon baronet in action? He took the part of the rascally Blackshirt major, who keeps the hero – played by Peter O’Toole – trapped in a burrow for a day or two. His stage name is John Standing, but according to Who’s Who his real name is Sir John (Ronald) Leon. He was born in 1934, educated at Eton, and succeeded his father, the 3rd baronet, in 1964. A son, Alexander John, was born in 1965.
The 1st baronet, Sir Herbert Leon, of Bletchley Park, has kept cropping up in these jottings.
Herbert Samuel Leon was born in 1850, the second son of George Leon, of Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London. George had established a stockbroking business and Herbert spent his early adult years in the complex hurly-burly of the financial world. He joined the firm at the age of 24 and for many years Leon Brothers were the leading dealers in the American Market, handling colossal sums.
The year before he became a partner he married his first wife, Esther, second daughter of Edward Henry Beddington, but she died in 1875, leaving a son, George Edward, who had been born that year and who eventually became the 2nd baronet.
Five years went by and then he married Fanny, second daughter of David Higham. By this time he was already a rich man in the terms of those days and although he did not retire from Leon Brothers until a few years before his death in 1926 his thoughts early turned to the idea of becoming a gentleman farmer and “one of the county,” as they used to say.
He was only 33 years old when he acquired the farmhouse and land at Bletchley, which he transformed into a mansion, a park and a park farm. Before coming to Bletchley, he lived at Rochester House, Linslade, though for how long I cannot say.
In those days he was a regular follower of Lord Rothschild’s Staghounds and the Whaddon Chase Foxhounds. However, I cannot help feeling that the county must have regarded him as a bit of a maverick. For one thing, he was an ardent Liberal at a time when Liberals were the country’s Leftists. And for another, he was a Rationalist, or “Freethinker,” and made no secret of it.
North Bucks became a separate parliamentary division in 1885. In 1891 the sitting Member, Captain Verney, resigned. Herbert became the party’s candidate for the by-election and won the seat, though during the campaign some of his opponents hardly stopped at terms like “Jewish usurer.” He won the general election the following year, but at the next election he was unseated.
Over many years he gave £500 annually to the North Bucks Liberal Association and he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom in 1911. In that year Prime Minister Asquith addressed a rally in Bletchley Park at which a Suffragette tied herself to a tree. I once met the ex-Leon employee who cut her free and saw her out of the park, but for the life of me I can’t remember who he was.
As an agriculturist Herbert believed strongly in what was known as “high farming.” He had the wherewithal to experiment and he passed on his findings to other farmers. He took a keen interest in the local cattle market and is said to have advocated its removal from Aylesbury Street to the Park Hotel Field 25 years before the move was actually made.
But despite the many calls of his business interests he found time to be a member and chairman of the local council, a county alderman, a chairman of magistrates and a High Sheriff of Bucks.
In most of his local activities he was strongly supported by his wife, Fanny. She was as ardent a Liberal as himself, the first woman member of the council, a powerful leader of local organisations and a lady bountiful right up to her own death in 1936.
Herbert’s Rationalism took an active form. In 1905 he helped set up a local Ethical Society. They met in the park’s cricket pavilion (now the music centre) and included Socialists like Harry Dimmock, and the Wells brothers.
Relations with his neighbour, the Rector, were on a cool live-and-let-live basis. Herbert objected to the clangour of the church bells on practice nights, but the Rector replied that the bells were there before he was and would go on ringing.
Local old people say that the Rector relented when Herbert manifestly was on his death-bed.
Herbert left a second son, Reginald, and two daughters, in addition to George Edward. Both sons, and also a grandson, were members of Leon Brothers at the time.
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