Benjamin Buck Greene

Eldest of seven sons and six daughters of Benjamin Greene (1780–1860) (q.v.), brewer and planation owner, and his second wife, Catherine (1783–1855).

Greene was sent to St Kitts in 1829 to manage his father's interests (acquired in 1823) which proved to highly profitable. The family also owned ships carrying sugar exports. Greene remained in St Kitts until 1837.

Benjamin senior established with his son Benjamin Greene & Son, West India merchants and shipowners, at 11 Mincing Lane. Benjamin Buck married (1837) Isabella Elizabeth (d. 1888), only daughter of Thomas Blyth of Limehouse, London, a wealthy ship chandler. They had three sons and three daughters.

1846: through his wife's family connections, formed a partnership with James and Henry Blyth, who controlled much of the external trade and sugar production of Mauritius. Blyths and Greene, merchants and shipowners, became one of London's largest colonial merchants and shipowners. Imported sugar from Mauritius, the East and West Indies, India and France; exported British manufactures to Mauritius.

Elected a Bank of England director (1850–1900), deputy governor (1871–3), governor (1873–5).

‘Greene emerged from relatively modest circumstances to become an important West Indies sugar planter and, later, one of London's leading colonial merchants. This led him to a directorship of the Bank of England, where he proved to be one of the ablest governors of his generation.’ (Orbell)

One of his brothers, Edward, was Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds (1865-1885) and Stowmarket (1886–91).

Great-uncle of Graham Greene (1904–1991), the novelist, and Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (1910–1987), director-general of the BBC.

John Orbell, ‘Greene, Benjamin Buck (1808–1902)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004 online edition, accessed 10/08/2012; R. G. Wilson, ‘Greene family (per. 1801–1920)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition, accessed 10/08/2012.