[1] He was born on 16 October 1872 in Wimbledon, Surrey, the son of Thomas Walter Buckmaster (1845–1873) and Emma Caroline Venables (1848–1875).

His father's sister, Maria Sarah Buckmaster was the mother of Alfred North Whitehead, the renowned mathematician and philosopher.

From Cambridge he had a career in the stock exchange joining with a fellow old Old Reptonian, Charles Armytage-Moore to become a founding partner in Buckmaster & Moore.

Although he was over age (42), he served in the Great War (1914–1918) in the Service Sanitaire (Ambulance), attached to the French Army.

Buckmaster lived initially in London's Mayfair at addresses in South and Stratton Streets during the war years and early 1920s.