The gentle Brees - butterflies, bucolic landscapes and a Bond B-list baddie

Rev Robert Bree was vicar of Maxstoke from 1718, and from a dynasty which produced well over 150 years of vicars at Allesely, butterfly experts, an artist, and a B-list Bond Baddie.

James Bree (above left) played three roles in the classic Doctor Who series. He played the Security Chief in the 1969 Patrick Troughton story The War Games, Nefred in the 1980 Tom Baker story Full Circle and Keeper of the Matrix in the 1986 Colin Baker story The Ultimate Foe. 

He was probably best known for playing Gumbold in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service and for his role as Uncle Arthur in The Jewel in the Crown.

He was born James Rutherfoord Worsfold Thomson in Somerset in 1923. He changed his name to Thomson-Bree on inheriting land in Warwickshire that had belonged to his great-uncle, Archdeacon William Bree, and became the popular patron of the benefice and rectory of Allesley. He used Bree as his stage name.