Anthony Frank Marchington (2 December 1955[1] – 16 October 2011[2]) was an Englishbiotechnology entrepreneur and businessman, famous as the co-founder of Oxford Molecular, and the former owner of the famousClass A3 4472Flying Scotsman locomotive.[3]
Born inBuxton,Derbyshire,[1] he was brought up on the family farm inBuxworth. He passed his motorcycle test at the age of 16, having learned to ride his father's 1914Bradbury motorcycle andsidecar combination.[4]He attendedNew Mills Grammar School. He gained his bachelor's degree, master's and D.Phil. atBrasenose College, Oxford.[4]
While at Oxford, Marchington befriended and later lodged with AmericanWalter Hooper, the last personal secretary of the writerC. S. Lewis. Through this relationship Marchington shared a lectern with Hooper in 1975 inNorth Carolina,[5] co-wrote the script ofThrough Joy and Beyond (the 1977 documentary life of Lewis[6]), and created the Lewis bonfirehoax letter, sent to Christianity and Literature in 1978.[7]
Marchington began his career as a product manager withICI Agrochemicals in 1983, becoming marketing manager forSouth America in 1986.[1]
In 1988, he started several companies in the areas of intellectual property, drug discovery andbiotechnology.[6] As these expanded, in the same year, under his tutorProfessor Graham Richards, Marchington co-founded Oxford Molecular Ltd. (later to become Oxford Molecular Plc.). Worth £450 million at its peak, it was eventually sold for £70million.[8]
A former member of theDepartment of Trade and Industry's Competitiveness Advisory Group, from 2000 Marchington's entrepreneurial activities included: running Marchington Consulting, based at theSheffield Bioincubator;[9] CEO at Savyon Diagnostics; and co-founded, as chairman and director, Venture Hothouse Ltd.[10] From 2010, Marchington was CEO at Oxford Medical Diagnostics.[11]
Marchington was made aFreeman of the City of London in 1997[1] and was an honorary fellow ofSt Edmund Hall, Oxford.
.JPG)
A steam fan from a young age, aged 22 Marchington bought his first steamroller from haulage contractor and scrap dealer Ted Eansworth inChesterfield. The collection that he started with his father eventually became the Buxworth Steam Group, which comprised a full workingVictorianfair, and raised revenue through offering them for hire:[4][12]
Marchington's Buxworth Steam Group was the star of the 1985BBC documentary 'A Gambol on Steam', which featured his first steam rally in the group, hosted atLyme Park, and featured exhibits from names such asFred Dibnah in addition to his current collection of a 1904Fowler D2 steamroller and his pair ofFowler BB1 ploughing engines ('Fame' and 'Fortune') and was one of the largest rallies of its time.[14]
In 1996, Marchington bought the famousLNERsteam locomotiveClass A3 4472Flying Scotsman at a cost of £1.5M. After a three-year restoration which cost an additional £1M, she returned to steam in 1999.[15] She made an appearance onPeak Rail in summer 2000, together with most of the Buxworth Steam Group collection.[12]
In 1997, Marchington purchasedLNER Class A4 4464Bittern from the family of Geoff Drury, which he also based at theSouthall Railway Centre. However, after the completion of the £1 million over-budget restoration ofFlying Scotsman was complete, he soldBittern in 2000 toJeremy Hosking, who moved her to theMid-Hants Railway in Hampshire in January 2001, for a major restoration.[16] Despite this, the ownership of bothBittern andFlying Scotsman meant that he is still the only ever private owner to own two Gresley Pacific class locomotives.
WithFlying Scotsman's regular use on theVSOE Pullman, in 2002, Marchington proposed a business plan, which included the construction of a 'Flying Scotsman Village' inEdinburgh, to create revenue from associated branding. After floating onOFEX as 'Flying Scotsman Plc.' in the same year,[6] in 2003 Edinburgh City Council turned down the village plans, and in September 2003 Marchington was declared bankrupt.[17] This resulted in the sale of most of the assets of the Buxworth Steam Group, includingThe Iron Maiden to Graeme Atkinson, who displays the engine alongside a collection of other engines and fair organs as part of theScarborough Fair Collection, at his holiday park inLebberston, nearScarborough, North Yorkshire.[18]
At the company's AGM in October 2003, CEOPeter Butler announced losses of £474,619, and with a £1.5M overdraft atBarclays Bank, stated that the company only had enough cash to trade until April 2004. The company's shares were suspended from OFEX on 3 November 2003, after it failed to declare interim results.[17]
With the locomotive effectively placed up for sale, after a high-profile national campaign it was bought in April 2004 by theNational Railway Museum inYork,[19] and it is now part of the National Collection.
Marchington's time with theFlying Scotsman was documented in theChannel 4 documentariesA Steamy Affair: The Story of Flying Scotsman, directed by formerBlue Peter presenterSimon Groom.[6]
Marchington met his second wife Caroline after he and his father offered her a lift on their steam engine to the Devonshire Arms, Peak Forest, the localpublic house on theA6 road, where they were staying that night.[4] The couple had two children, and family homes in Buxton, Derbyshire and Oxfordshire.[12] He also had two children from a previous marriage. His passion for vintage restoration continued with his family for the rest of his life, even after the sagas of Buxworth Steam Group andFlying Scotsman.
After meeting Jim Daniel, the Grand Secretary of theUnited Grand Lodge of England, at a dinner of Brasenose College members, Marchington was initiated as aFreemason at Oxford-basedApollo University Lodge number 357 in January 1991. He was passed and raised the following year, and went into the chair in November 1996. Marchington celebrated his installation asWorshipful Master of the Lodge with the commissioning of a set of limited edition glass tankards, engraved with the square and compasses on one side and the Flying Scotsman on the other.
Marchington joined a number of other Masonic Orders, including theHoly Royal Arch, the Order of theRed Cross of Constantine, theOrder of Mark Master Masons, and the Royal Ark Mariners. He was appointed a Provincial Grand Steward for Oxfordshire in 1997, and became Oxfordshire's Assistant Provincial Grand Master in 1998.[4]
After a long period of treatment, Marchington died ofcancer at Buxton's Cottage Hospital on 16 October 2011.[2]