MK Today - Saturday 7th January 2023

This photograph shows Sir John Leon – 4^th Baronet of Bletchley Park being presented with his family’s coat of arms by two Leon School students.

Thw photograph was taken in 1990 as part of my project IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS which I ran with students from Leon School.

Sir John wrote the introduction to the published text.

I am utterly charmed that anybody would want to find out about the Leons, and fascinated and grateful that they have.

I feel strangely detached, being mainly brought up in a theatrical family, on my mother’s side. My parents were divorced and my brother and I were made wards of court, so the Leon side was hideously neglected. I only use my title at 35,000 feet, as that is what is on my passport !

I remember my father telling me that the family came from Spain in 1790 and were seriously rich even then. Apparently they haunted the court of the Prince Regent at Brighton, presumably the Pavilion, and hobnobbed with a pretty dodgy Royal group. I do know they lived at Brighton at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were very early members of the London Stock Exchange. The fact that my great-grandfather was an enormously caring Liberal, is more than heartening, and I am much of that persuasion to this day.

So the next time I am sent a “Who’s Who Form”, Re Sir John Leon Bart.,see John Standing , it will be a double whammy as previously I had really never known who they were, and as I have recently produced three more children , the family name will now go spinning into the next century.

Thank you very much at LEON SCHOOL, I am very honoured to be associated with you in any way. Great, great good luck to you all.

John Leon

IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS now has its own chapter in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF

LEGEND.

It is impossible in the year of 2023 to go anywhere in the City of Milton Keynes without being in sight of a legend. The Leons gave more heritage to our City than any other person or persons. I call Samuel Leon Mr Bletchley but his influence extended way beyond Bletchley Park. Among other things he was a director of Wolverton Tram Company an was for a time our Member of Parliament.

The Leons, Samuel and Fanny Leon, came to Bletchley Park in 1883, one hundred and forty years ago. They were a duo, together giving so much heritage we walk through today. With the death of Lady Leon in 1936 their time with us ended. A short period within the history of Milton Keynes but across those years they gave us so much.

Some words now from Leon School Headmaster Bruce Abbott who added this to the IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS TEXT.

I am an historian as well as a headmaster, I am especially pleased with all the hard work that our young people have put into this book. Some of us probably have memories of history as a rather dull subject, not in any way connected with real life. All the young people in this project, however, have shown tremendous interest and enthusiasm for the research that have undertaken into the Leon Family.

Sir Herbert and Lady Leon, in the early decades of the twentieth century, contributed to the life of Bletchley immeasurably. They were particularly interested in education and it is right that our school should commemorate their service.

Congratulations to all those who have helped to produce this book. It is a task well done and furthermore it is fascinating to read.

Bruce Abbott

Headmaster Leon School

Bletchley Park can be traced all the way back to the Doomsday Book, today it really does not exist any more having become a museum and a housing estate. If you undertake an on-line search for Sir Herbert Leon you will find  lot of inaccurate and incomplete information.

IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS was written with the help of those who in their younger days had known and some who had worked for the family. We trawled the school’s record books and newspaper archives. The former editor of The Bletchley Gazette who knew Lady Leon offered his help. As did the archivist at Eton School where the Leon Children were educated.

Herbert Leon received his knighthood as part of King George V’s Coronation Honours on Thursday 2^nd June 1911. In 2021 I made my own presentation to Buckingham Palace supporting Milton Keynes bid for a city charter. The opening chapter in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND details this presentation and how I included all the Leons did for their community. I just know how proud Sir Herbert and Lady Leon would be that Her Late Majesty awarded Milton Keynes its city charter within her Platinum Jubilee.

Writing now this week’s edition of MK Today, I want to lift high and celebrate all the Leons gave during their short time at Bletchley Park, to celebrate how this heritage became in 1967 part of the New City of Milton Keynes and in 2022 became part of the City of Milton Keynes.

MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND

Wouldn't it be nice if all cities were like Milton Keynes