On 12th September 2014 we welcomed James Buxton to speak to our members and guests at The Falcon Hotel
James Buxton was born in County Durham in October 1939 but his parents lived in Leicestershire before the War. His father, a Local Director with Barclays Bank in Leicester, was killed in the War serving with the Leicestershire Yeomanry. James was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He joined Barclays Bank in 1962, starting at two branches in London, then Loughborough followed by the Local Head Office at Chelmsford. He worked in Nigeria in 1965-66 during the civil war, before running a branch in Ghana for six months. Back in England, he served on the Inspection Team in Windsor and Reading and then became Assistant Manager of a large branch in Bradford.
As a Local Director he spent ten years at Peterborough, living in Drayton in Leicestershire, then in Seaton in Rutland. He then took on a similar role in Norwich, with a responsibility for corporate and retail business development and agriculture. He left Barclays in 1988 when the Bank closed 32 Local Head Offices throughout the country and moved back to Leicestershire, living in Lubenham for 11 years before moving to Smeeton Westerby. After 18 months as the Finance Director of Shuttleworth Agricultural College, he joined the British Horse Society in 1989 at Stoneleigh as a Senior Executive Officer responsible for the volunteers throughout the UK.
After retiring at 60, he became a Trustee of the Society, serving as Vice Chairman and a member of the Finance Committee. He also completed two years’ membership of the Audit Committee. Other responsibilities have included eight years as County Chairman of St. John Ambulance in Leicestershire and serving on their Finance Committee in London. In 2005-06 he was High Sheriff of Leicestershire. He is also Treasurer of a number of local organisations.