STCG62 gives the history of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia in Sri Lanka. W. A. Buck arrived in September 1896 to be the Warden. "The Rev. W.A.Buck was educated at Merchant Taylors’ and won a Classical Scholarship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where’ he took second class Classical Honours, and read Theology in his fourth year. He was ordained by Bishop Temple to a curacy at Bethnal Green in 1887: in 1890 he was appointed the first missioner of his old School Mission, opened that year in the parish of West Hackney, and in 1895 he became Vicar of Leck in Lancashire. He had a fine atheletic {sic} record having been captain of his School, College and county Rugby football teams, and having played cricket for the Gentlemen of Essex. He was also a good fives and tennis player, an oarsman, and an athlete. He was at this time a young man of thirty-two, full of energy and enthusiasm. Although his stay in Ceylon was to be even shorter than that of his predecessor, the College has seldom been through a more stirring period."
"Speaking without notes, at his first prize-giving in the College, on October 15th, 1897" his speech included some controversial statements, such as "There was a distinct want of manliness. He recommended public school boarding houses for real manhood." He was also criticised for using corporal punishment.
"Early in 1901 the Warden was on leave, and by May, the news arrived that, owing to the ill health of his wife, he had been compelled to resign." His farewell letter to the boys was written from The Vicarage, Stoke Newington, and is signed "W.Armstrong Buck".
"In 1906, after the Warden’s retirement, there is a quiet headline in a Ceylon paper, "A Chat with the Rev. W.A. Buck. "He was then vicar of Leamington in England."
From Warwickshire County Council: 1915, as Vicar of Leamington, he was quoted in the Parish magazine in "Enlistment: What the Vicar Sees" on the failure of many young single men to enlist when married men have done their duty.
He was vicar at Leamington 1906–16.
Leamington Cricket Club gives: "The Reverend W Armstrong Buck, Vicar of Leamington between 1907 and 1916 became a VP {Vice President} in 1906; he emigrated to Pau, Monte-Carlo and Nice until 1937."
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