Angela Buxton: 1934 to 2020

Jonathan Djanogly

Angela was born in Liverpool in 1934 to Harry and Violet Buxton. Harry established a successful cinema chain in the north of England funded, initially in 1928, by his breaking the bank at the tables in Monte Carlo. War separation, with Violet, Angela and brother Gordon staying in South Africa, led to her parents’ divorce, although Harry and violet always remained very close. However the 13- year-old Angela came back to England a keen tennis player and very quickly started winning tournaments. Despite not coming from an observant Jewish family, Angela‘s interest in her faith and also her lifetime commitment to Zionism was triggered by her participation and victory in the 1953 and 1957 Maccabiah games. In particular she took great pride in being given the honour of holding the British flag in the opening ceremony.

Following the Six Day War she and her then husband, Chairman of the Zionist Federation Donald Silk, volunteered for a year on Kibbutz Ami’ad in the Galilee, where her daughter Rebecca (age 2) learnt Hebrew before English. Angela helped the development of tennis in Israel and mentored a number of Israeli tennis players over the years. Also given that the Angela Buxton Centre taught tennis at its North London premises for decades, it would probably be fair to say that Angela has done as much to encourage young Jewish people to play the sport as anyone else has.

But of course, Angela’s reputation will forevermore be tied to three issues. Firstly the way in which she overcame anti-Semitism to achieve