Coronation Honours

Herbert Samuel Leon, Mr Bletchley. Frank Markham, Mr Milton Keynes. Two very special people without who Milton Keynes would not be the city we proudly know today. Two gentlemen who have inspired me over many decades bringing my love for my adopted home and my love of writing together. Two gentlemen whose inspiration added them to the coronation honours list of two monarchs.

Herbert Samuel Leon was born on Saturday 11^th February 1850 and left us on Friday 23^rd July 1926. King George V ascended to the throne on 6^th May 1910 and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Thursday 2^nd June 1911. Within his coronation honours Mr Bletchley, Herbert Samuel Leon became Sir Herbert Leon.

Sydney Frank Markham was born on Friday 18^th October 1897 and left us on Monday 13^th October 1975. Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne on 6^th February 1952 and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 2^nd June 1953. Within her coronation honours Mr Milton Keynes, Frank Markham, became Sir Frank Markham.

As a child in the days when we had proper money with pennies, shillings and pounds coins were in circulation for Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Therefore the history of our monarchy was right in front of us every day. I was born under the reign of King George VI and actually attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. No, not in Westminster Abbey but as a two year old waving my flag along the procession route.

Herbert Leon born 1850 and Frank Markham born 1897 were both Victorians.

Milton Keynes was conceived, born and developed entirely within the reign of Her Majesty

Queen Elizabeth II. As someone who emigrated here in 1971 from the Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield (Royal there being King Henry VIII) I watched and was a part of our New City as it grew from fields to the home today of more than a quarter of a million people. In 2021 Milton Keynes was no longer the New City announced in 1967 but the old borough of Milton Keynes. Then within her Platinum Jubilee celebration Her Majesty gave a new meaning to New City as she bestowed a city charter on our home. I am sure that both Sir Herbert Leon and Sir Frank Markham were looking down with immense pride and gratitude.

Mr Bletchley’s story is told within my 1991 project and publication In Search Of The Leons which is reproduces here in this kaleidoscope of legends. I am so proud that my project reunited the Leon Family with its ancestral roots.  Sir John Leon, great-grandson of Sir Herbert, wrote the introduction.

It was in 1883 that Herbert Leon moved his family to Bletchley Park and began making his mark on the area from which I here name him as Mr Bletchley.

Herbert Leon’s interests included politics as a committed Liberal. He was a long standing friend of David Lloyd George who was a frequent visitor to Bletchley Park.

Herbert was returned to Parliament as Liberal Member for North Buckinghamshire in 1981, serving as a member of the opposition. He contested the seat again the general election of 1892 defeating the tory candidate, Sir Walter Carlisle when the Liberal Party was returned to power under Gladstone. In 1895, however, the tables were turned and Walter Carlisle was returned as Conservative Member with the Liberals being returned to opposition. Herbert Leon did not stand for the constituency again. He did, however, contest the Staffordshire seat of Handsworth but without success.

It is certain that the Liberal Party benefitted from having such a wealthy member in Herbert Leon who continued his interest at local level. Until his death he was president of the North Buckinghamshire Liberal Association, a position Fanny Leon took over in 1927. For many years he was an Alderman of Buckinghamshire County Council serving as Chairman of the Finance Committee where, no doubt, his financial ability benefited Buckinghamshire. He was unopposed in standing for the town council in 1903, and in 1911, became Chairman of Bletchley Urban District Council. On both councils he was one of the most regular attending members.

Bletchley Park today is world famous as Winston Churchill’s Ultra Secret and the home of the codebreakers. There is far more to it than that, it dates way back to the Doomsday Book. The Leon Family lived there from1883 to 1937, a considerably longer time than Alan Turing and his associates. Wartime Bletchley Park may have international fame but the Leons during their tenure added untold heritage to our City, heritage which I explore throughout this work.

His Majesty King George V knighted Herbert Leon for his work in politics but I suggest we Mkeneyans in today’s New City honour him for the work he did within our community and the beautiful heritage he gave to us all.

Herbert Leon was an immigrant, Frank Markham was born in Stony Stratford. I met Sir Frank Markham on two occasions attending lecture he gave when I was a trainee teacher in Bletchley Park. Mr Milton Keynes gave untold wealth to our New City but sadly today that heritage, pardon the pun, is an enigma.

Sydney, let’s call him Frank as that is how he is known, left school at the age of fourteen. During the Great War se saw service in France, Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq) and Greece. He left the army in 1921 and began studies at Oxford University.

Frank Markham was a member of parliament but his career in politics was nowhere as straightforward as that of Herbert Leon.

He began by fighting the Guilford seat for Labour in 1924 but failed to win. In 1929 he was elected as Labour MP for Chatham then defected with Ramsay MacDonald to become a National Labour MP. He then stood down at the 1931 general election. Again as a National Labour candidate he was elected for Nottingham South. He lost his seat standing as a National Independent in the 1945 when National Labour was dissolved.

In the 1950 he stood as the Conservative candidate for Buckingham (Milton Keynes) but failed to unseat the sitting Labour Member of Parliament Aiden Crawley. However, in the 1951 general election he beat Crawley by a margin of fifty-four votes. He held the seat with narrow majorities in the 1955 and 1959 elections. He stood down before the 1964 general election.

So what do you make of all that ! Can you imagine how the political commentators within today’s twenty-four rolling news would have exploited his career ! I tell you what I make of it, Frank Markham was not into politics but he was into people.

Frank Markham was born in Stony Stratford Milton Keynes, he served as Member of Parliament for Buckingham (Milton Keynes), when he died he was buried in Calverton Road Cemetery Stony Stratford. When his wife passed away she was buried alongside him.

Sir Frank Markham, Mr Milton Keynes. For twenty years Frank Markham researched the history of North Buckinghamshire. During this time the New City of Milton Keynes took over so when this vast research was published in two large volumes its title was The History of Milton Keynes and District. When I was writing Not The Concrete Cows in the early 1990’s Lady Markham gave me permission to refer to her late husband’s writing within my own.

Sadly all these years after its original publication it is so very hard to get hold of a copy of Sir Frank’s work but without it none of my own Milton Keynes writing over the decades could have happened. Mr Milton Keynes gave so much to our city and I would suggest what he gave was a passion from his heart.

Did King George V who honoured Herbert Samuel Leon ever visit Milton Keynes ? I am not sure. Legend says that his sons The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, and the Duke of York, later King George VI, hunted on Leon land.  Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who honoured Frank Markham, how many times did she visit Milton Keynes ?  The answer to that question is MANY. Many times. After all it was her city. Born fifteen years into her reign and given a city charter within her Platinum Jubilee shortly before he passing.

King Charles III, as Prince of Wales, opened Central Milton Keynes Railway Station. The Dutch of Cornwall is the landlord for B & Q in Rooksley. I don’t think that is a legend.

So the royal patronage for our City stretches over decades from the Coronation of King George V to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

Mr Bletchley. Walk around the southern part of our city and you will find the Leon Name everywhere celebrating the heritage the family have to our heritage. Leon Recreation Ground, Leon Avenue, Leon Cottages, Leon Bridge.

Mr Milton Keynes. You won’t find the name of Sir Frank Markham anywhere and yet he spent so much of his life recording our history and turning it into heritage. For a time a school was named after him but so cruelly it changed its name. What is it today, does anybody know ?

I am going to end this chapter by making a suggestion. Central Milton Keynes Library, that’s a bit of a boring name isn’t it ! Would it not sound so much better, would it properly recognise the work and passion of the gentleman concerned if it were not renamed SIR FRANK MARKHAM LIBRARY ?