The 2nd Lord Faringdon (portrait by Walter Sickert, c.1935)

Gavin Henderson, 2nd Lord Faringdon, thus succeeded his grandfather in 1934. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, the 2nd Lord Faringdon had, in the 1920s, been a member of the set known as the ‘Bright Young Things’ immortalised in the novels of Evelyn Waugh and Aldous Huxley. But by the time he succeeded to Buscot he had developed a strong interest in public affairs, had joined the Labour Party, and had keenly supported the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. A convinced pacifist, he joined the Fire Service in the Second World War, serving with great courage during the blitz in London, Bristol and other large cities. After the war he sat on the executive committee of the Fabian Society until 1969, and was chairman of the Society’s Colonial Bureau from 1952 to 1958. He also served on the London County Council (LCC), as a councillor from 1958 to 1961, and as an alderman from 1961 to 1965. After the creation of the Greater London Council (GLC) in that year, he was appointed to serve on its Historic Buildings Committee.
   
During the 2nd Lord Faringdon’s day, Buscot was regularly used as the venue for conferences attended by prominent socialist politicians, the most celebrated being in 1970, after the fall of Harold Wilson’s Labour government. Buscot was also noted for its tradition of political weekend parties. But politicians were not the only visitors: the arts were also fully represented. Lord Faringdon was a trustee of the Wallace Collection and, in a house where the owner had amassed, rather than inherited, the majority of the contents (and was continually adding to them) this must have provoked many an enjoyable discussion.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Basque capital, Guernica, was systematically destroyed by aerial bombing – the first town anywhere to experience this particular form of terror, and an event immortalised in Picasso’s great work 'Guernica', depicting the cruelty and destructiveness of war. Fearing further attacks, Basque parents waved goodbye to 4,000 of their children who were evacuated on board the 'Habana', which set sail for Southampton. The evacuation – opposed by the government of the day – was organised by the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, a coalition of church groups and trade unions. On arrival in Southampton, the Basque refugees were told they could stay in England for just three months, though many were, in fact, to remain in exile for several years. The children were then dispersed to various temporary ‘colonies’, one of which was hosted at Buscot Park by the 2nd Lord Faringdon, who employed Luis Portillo (father of the politician Michael Portillo) as their schoolmaster.

Lord Faringdon also gave shelter to six of the numerous writers who went into exile after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. One of them was Luis Cernuda (1902–63), one of Spain’s most distinguished modern poets. Another was Pedro Garfias (1901–67), whose poem of homesickness and exile, entitled 'Primavera en Eaton Hastings' (Spring in Eaton Hastings), was inspired by his walks in the countryside around Buscot, and now enjoys a great reputation in the Spanish-speaking literary world. Arturo Barea (1897–1957) was, for most of the Spanish Civil War, head of the Foreign Press and Censorship Bureau of the Republican government in Madrid. He was also the radio broadcaster who became internationally famous as the ‘Unknown Voice of Madrid’. Forced to leave Spain in 1938, he eventually settled at the invitation of Gavin Faringdon in the village of Eaton Hastings. He worked for the BBC during the Second World War and contributed articles to 'Horizon' magazine, 'London Forum' and 'The Times Literary Supplement'. Barea published novels and short stories as well as books of criticism, including 'Lorca, The Poet and His People' (1944) and 'Unamuno' (1952).