Robert Barclay Fox
{{Short description|Businessman and County Councillor (1873–1934)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
Robert Barclay Fox (24 July 1873 – 22 April 1934) was a Falmouth businessman and Conservative Party politician in Cornwall. He was known as Barclay Fox.
Fox was born the son of Robert Fox (1845–1915) and his wife Ellen Mary Bassett."Dictionary of Quaker Biography" (a source in typescript, held at Friends House, London). The article gives as its source an obituary in The Friend, Volume 92 (1934) pages 378 and 388.
He was the grandson of another "Robert Barclay Fox" (1817–1855) and was also known as Barclay Fox, one of the influential local Quaker family of Fox, of Falmouth, Cornwall. He inherited "Grove Hill" and Penjerrick Garden, that his grandfather and great-grandfather had developed.Obituary in The Times, Tuesday, 24 April 1934; pg. 16; Issue 46736; col C
Education
He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford.
Family business
He became the senior partner in the conglomerate business, G.C. Fox & Co (originally a Shipping Agent). He was a director of the Falmouth Dock Board and Consul for Denmark and Vice-Consul for Norway, Germany and Finland. The King of Norway awarded him a knighthood of the order of St. Olav.The Times, Saturday, 13 February 1932; pg. 13; Issue 46056; col B Court Circular. Permission granted for RBF to wear the insignia of a foreign honour.
Local politics
He served as a Cornwall County Councillor and as a governor of a number of local schools, and of the School of Art. He was High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1920. He was the chairman of the Penryn & Falmouth Unionist Association.The Unionists were against Home Rule in Ireland and consisted of Conservatives and Liberal-Unionists.
Other interests
Barclay Fox supported the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, like many of his family. He was its Vice-president 1909–1912. Its Annual Report 1934 included a photographic portrait of him.Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society Annual Report 1934 Photographic portrait of R.Barclay Fox as frontispiece, Obituary in Portrait Gallery section pp.65-67.
Barclay Fox also followed his family in his interest in horticulture and continued his father, grandfather and great-grandfather's development of Penjerrick.
Marriage and death
File:BudockQBG-R-Barclay-Fox.jpg, near Falmouth]]
Barclay Fox married his cousin, Margaret (Peggy) Bassett. His sister, Naomi Bassett Fox was born on 1 February 1886.Naomi Bassett Fox: [http://www.pennyghael.org.uk/Tregelles.pdf Date of birth from Descendants of Henry Tregelles compiled by Charles E. G. Pease of the Kinloch Hotel, Isle of Mull]
Margaret and Naomi were members of a Women's Suffrage society in Falmouth affiliated to National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Naomi was its Secretary.[https://books.google.com/books?id=eIzLissZmscC&dq=%22Naomi+Bassett+Fox%22&pg=PA124 The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928, by Elizabeth Crawford , Routledge (1999) p124 and 213 on GoogleBooks]
Margaret Fox died in 1928.
References
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Category:English businesspeople
Category:People from Falmouth, Cornwall
Category:People educated at Winchester College
Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Category:Conservative Party (UK) councillors