The 1st Lord Faringdon
(portrait by Sir William Orpen)

In 1889 Buscot was sold to Alexander Henderson, later 1st Lord Faringdon (1850–1934), a financier of exceptional skill and ability. Henderson was the second son of a distinguished Greek and Hebrew scholar, George Henderson of Langholm, Dumfries, and brother of Brigadier-General Sir Brodie Haldane Henderson, RE. His first job in the City was with Deloittes, a leading firm of accountants. Soon afterwards, he joined the stockbroking firm of Greenwood & Co., whose merger in 1932 with Cazenove Ackroyd was due to his efforts. At an early age he had become a leading figure in the City, financing a wide range of industrial and business enterprises, but specialising in the promotion of railways, both in this country and in South America. He was Chairman of the Great Central Railway from 1889 until the grouping of 1922 (when it became part of the London & North Eastern) and a major shareholder in the Manchester Ship Canal; he also held interests in port developments, and telephone and electrical systems, all over the world. During the First World War he launched the British Trade Corporation, serving as its first Chairman. He was created a baronet in 1902, baron in 1916, and a Companion of Honour in the following year.


During the Second World War, Buscot Park provided a home for Ancaster House School, evacuated from Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, in 1940

The 1st Lord Faringdon’s political career was firmly allied to his business and commercial interests. He first entered the House of Commons as a Unionist MP in 1898, and became a strong supporter of Joseph Chamberlain’s campaign for tariff reform, acquiring control of a newspaper, the Standard, to advocate these views. He later became a frequent speaker in the House of Lords on this, and related subjects. At Buscot, he reverted to a more traditional policy of estate management than his predecessor, Robert Campbell, but rendered notable services to agriculture by his improvements to pedigree stock. He served as High Sheriff of Berkshire, and as President of the Shire Horse Society. Lord Faringdon’s eldest son, Colonel The Hon. H G Henderson, married Lady Violet Dalzell, daughter of the 14th Earl of Carnwath, but died in 1922, twelve years before his father.