Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven

Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven (31 August 1896 – 20 August 1966), usually known as Huttleston Broughton was a British peer, racehorse breeder and art collector.

Early life

Broughton was born on 31 August 1896 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, in the United States. He was the eldest son of Urban Hanlon Broughton and Cara Leland (née Rogers) Broughton. His father was a British civil engineer who had gone to the United States to represent the hydro-pneumatic sewerage system of Isaac Shone.

Broughton was named after his father, Urban, and his mother's paternal grandmother Mary Eldridge Huttleston. He attended St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. In 1909, his maternal grandfather died, and Broughton's mother inherited an estimated $12.5 million from his estate. He did not stand for re-election in December 1918.

The wealth that Broughton had inherited from his American grandfather allowed him to indulge his passion for collecting, an interest he shared with his mother, Lady Fairhaven. His collection included paintings by Claude Lorrain, John Constable, William Etty, Richard Parkes Bonington, Sir Alfred Munnings, as well as Tudor panel portraits and a number of paintings of Windsor Castle. Broughton's horses included Constantia, who won the 1951 Lowther Stakes.

Broughton carried out public duties as a Liaison Commissioner of the Joint War Organisation during World War II, as deputy lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (appointed in 1937) and as a Justice of the Peace (appointed in 1939). His philanthropy included a gift of £30,000 to the Fitzwilliam Museum for the purchase of British School landscapes.

Broughton did not marry, and, in 1961, a second barony was conferred on him, with the remainder to his brother, Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven.

When Broughton died on 20 August 1966, 11 days before his 70th birthday, obituaries in The Times and The New York Times said he was known as "the shy peer" because he disliked publicity.

Anglesey Abbey was left to the National Trust, with the stipulation that the house and collection should remain exactly as it was at his death.