R. B. (Richard Baxter) Townshend

Born in County Cork in 1846, he was educated at Repton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read classics and took his B.A. in 1867. Family records and later reference sources agree that he spent much of the next decade in the United States, especially in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico, trying life as a cattle rancher, trader, and gold prospector before returning to England.

Back in Oxford, he built a literary and academic life. Reference sources describe him as a writer of both historical and fictional works, including An Officer of the Long Parliament and His Descendants and the Western adventure novel Lone Pine. He also became connected with Oxford educational life, and later sources note that composer Edward Elgar honored him in the "R.B.T." variation of the Enigma Variations.

He married Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker in 1881; she also wrote and collaborated with him on at least one book. He died in Oxford on April 28, 1923. What stands out most about him is the mix: a classically trained man who also knew ranching country firsthand, and who turned both inheritance and adventure into books.