by Dr. Iain
Corness
Anthony (Tony) Buxton is retired in Thailand. He began
his colourful history with, “Of course, I’ve never worked in my
life!” which is obviously taking liberties, but Tony Buxton is a man who
has enjoyed taking liberties with life itself.
Born in Sri Lanka, his father was managing the family
spice business. As a lad being educated in the UK, Tony was expected to
follow in his father’s footsteps, but even at that early stage in his
life he was exhibiting a very strong non-conformist streak. Instead of
peddling spices he began paddling around with spear guns and became a
professional spear fisherman instead. “I had absolutely no interest in
business. I was devoted to the sea.”
I asked him if he could make any money with his spear
gun and he replied, “Money? Nothing! But what a life! I paid a whole
year’s income tax catching 202 lobsters in Colombo!” Little did the
lobsters know they were better than legal tender.
Spear fishing did take him half way around the world,
when he competed at the world championships in Malta. It was there he met
up with another underwater adventurer, Australian Ben Crop, and the two
forged a life-long friendship.
Another celluloid adventurer was Lex Barker, the Tarzan
character, whom Tony met when he sold Tarzan some jewels to take back to
Jane. This resulted in Tony working as a stand-in for Barker in a Tarzan
movie shot in Ceylon.
Tony’s life was idyllic for the times, underwater
spear fishing, catching rare tropical marine life which he sold to people
such as Jacques Cousteau for his marine aquarium in Monaco and being the
middleman for the rare gems exporters, and picking up a few dollars here
and there taking tourists on underwater safaris.
However, with the advent of the Marxist government,
life for Ceylon’s Crocodile Dundee began to get harder, so he landed a
job in Bangkok with the Borneo Company. “You didn’t work for the
Borneo Company - you were employed by the Borneo Company,” he said with
a laugh, emphasizing his claim to have never worked in his life.
Here in Thailand he found crystal clear waters (in
those days) and he founded the Thailand Sub-Aqua Club, being one of the
first divers in the country in 1962. “Before then they were all too
worried about the sharks, but the last one had been in 1924.” Sharks of
course would have been no match for Tarzan’s double, of that both Tony
and I are sure.
In Bangkok he was enjoying the good life and had put on
a few kilos, but when his friend Ben Crop invited him to star in a movie
to be shot in Australia and the Pacific he jumped at it. “Tarzan” was
met by the press in Sydney. “He looks more like King Farouk, than
Tarzan,” was the Aussie press’ description, but Tony didn’t care. He
was underwater and doing what he wanted. The movie shifted to Fiji but
then ran into financial problems, which bounced back on to Tony, who had
invested whatever he had into the venture. The film ended up in the bin,
rather than in the can, and Tony was washed up in Singapore, down to his
last $100.
Jumping in at the deep end (if you’ll pardon the
pun), he found that there was enormous potential for underwater work in
Singapore and ended up running a salvage and underwater damage survey
company in conjunction with the giant Exxon Company. This was very
successful and by employing good managers, he came up from beneath the
water and devoted some time to playing polo with the Sultan of Johore. In
fact, he lived in one of the Sultan’s palaces and commuted three times a
week to the Singapore office.
He had been ‘playing the field’ (and not the polo
field either) and the Sultan said that it was time Tony got married so
that he could concentrate more on his polo game, and it was strongly
suggested by the Sultan’s son, the Raja Muda of Johore, that he marry
“the nice Thai girl” he had brought to polo a couple of times
previously. The Sultan agreed, and the poor girl was informed that she was
getting married the next day with the Mayor of Johore officiating, and the
reception at the palace. That was 30 years ago, and “the nice Thai
girl” has endured, despite the ‘speargun’ wedding.
During the next few years Tony travelled to Thailand
many times and set up his own underwater consultancy which covered
everything from salvage to tourist recreational diving trips. These suited
his lifestyle, still being the underwater spear fisherman of fortune that
he was by inherent nature.
By 1978 Tony and his (long suffering) wife began
looking at settling down in Thailand. “I reckoned we could live here and
I could get down to Singapore once a month for a few days and do any odd
consulting job that came up.” However, in Tony’s own words, “Then
the bombshell fell!” He was approached by an insurance company who knew
of his underwater abilities and his past experience and he was offered the
job of managing a project to inspect and repair 200 offshore oil rigs.
Repairing these huge structures was costly and Tony estimated that each
would take around five million dollars and the total bill would be one
billion and the job take 10 years to complete. A consortium would put up
the money and Tony’s fee would be 5%. For those not of quick
mathematical bent, that is fifty million dollars.
Retire in Thailand immediately or go for fifty million
and retire in 10 years a rich man? He vacillated and finally chose to turn
his back on the money. He went to Bangkok, bought a pick-up and loaded his
wife’s furniture and belongings and drove to upcountry. He is still
here, with his wealth of stories, but without the wealth of fifty million
in the bank!
