John Buchan – First Baron Tweedsmuir, GCMG, GCVO, CH, PC.
John Buchan was born in Perth Scotland in 1875. He had an interesting and very varied life as a diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet, Member of Parliament, and novelist. It is perhaps the last of these for which he is best known and for his novel The thirty-nine steps. He became a peer in 1935 as Lord Tweedsmuir on his appointment as Governor General of Canada. A small museum dedicated to John Buchan and his works is located in the village of Broughton a village five miles north of Tweedsmuir. in Peeblesshire, Scotland. Click on Navigation Bar on the right to get to the Heritage Museum and/or Map. If you have any views on why John Buchan chose Tweedsmuir as his title see the Tweedsmuir Title page which follows the book section below which in turn is followed by Anna Buchan.
CHRONOLOGY.
1875 John Buchan was born at Perth on 26th August. His father also John Buchan (1847-1911) was a Minister in the Free Church of Scotland. His mother was Helen Masterton from Broughton (1857-1937).In November 1875 the family moved to Pathhead in Fife.
1940 Governor general of Canada. Died in the Neurological Institute, Montreal, on 11th February. Lay in State in the Senate Chamber, Ottowa. Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey. Buried in Elsfield Churchyard - go to Godspell.org.uk for image and details of inscription of Headstone.
For a full chronological list of John Buchan's life between the above dates click on Chronology. page.
University Degrees.
Apart from his degrees at Glasgow and Oxford Universities he obtained Honourary Degrees from many others. These include St. Andrews and Edinburgh in Scotland. Yale and Harvard in the USA. In Canada, McGill, Montreal, Hamilton, Lennoxville, Manitoba, Victoria, Toronto and others.
Duodenal Ulcer.
In 1912 it was thought that Buchan had a duodenal ulcer which was causing him extreme pain - a condition that plagued him for the rest of his life. It was also thought the ulcer had been brought on by overwork. (The photograph above was taken in 1906 several years before the ravages of his illness took it's toll). In 1917 he had an unsuccesful operation for the complaint. Buchan gave one of his favourite characters, the American John S. Blenkiron, the same afflication which was cured by an operation. Blenkiron appeared in several of Buchan's novels. Blenkiron when ill was on a strict diet and no doubt so was Buchan particularly after his illnes drove him to bed in 1914 at Broadstairs. This diet would appear to exclude bacon/eggs which seems to have irked Buchan no-end which has resulted in his Scottish based books including many references to this food - see John Buchan and Ham/Eggs page.
BOOKS BY JOHN BUCHAN.
Buchan wrote over one hundred books and hundreds of articles. His literary output ranged widely, from his well-known thrillers to children's books, romances, biographies, poetry, anthologies and short stories. For a list of his books see Chronilogical Bibliography page. There were several Unified Editions of his works published by Nelsons in Edinburgh. These comprised of 30 volumes including novels, biographies, short stories and poetry - for more about these see Unified Editions page. The following are snippets about some of his books
NOVELS.
Buchan is probably best remembered for his adventure novels featuring the Scottish born mining engineer from South Africa, Richard Hannay. In particular the first of these The thirty-nine steps published in 1914. This was followed by the sequel Greenmantle published in 1916, Mr. Standfast in 1919 and The Three Hostages published in 1924. There have been three film adaptions of the The thirty-nine steps. The first in 1936 starring Robert Donat and directed by Alfred Hitchcock was titled The 39-Steps - the different title indicating that it was not a film of the book. The second film in 1958 starring Kenneth More was a remake of the Hitchcock film. The third film in 1978 starring Robert Powell reverted to the book as much as possible and was titled The thirty-nine steps ie the same title as the book. A fourth edition is planned. There have also been many radio dramatisations of his works, particularly of the Hannay stories.
Hannay also featured in a short story The Green Wildebeest contained in the collection of short stories titled The Runagates Club published in 1928, also in the introduction to The Courts of the Morning published in 1929 and in his last outing in The Island of Sheep published in 1936.
Another unlikely Buchan hero was Dickson McCunn a retired Glasgow grocer. He appeared in three novels - Huntingtower published in 1922, Castle Gay in 1930 and The House of the Four Winds published in 1935.
In 1925 John Macnab was published. This is a story of three friends - Edward Leithen, Lord Lamancha and John Palliser-Yeates who have the idea of taking a holiday at the Scottish West Highland Estate of Crask. To get over boredom they planned for an audacious challange to be sent to the three neighbouring estates that their respective properties would be poached between certain dates. This challenge was to be sent under synonym of John Macnab.
Several of Buchan's novels are set in the Scottish Borders country including four set in the Upper Tweed Valley. He loved the Border Country and knew it well having walked and or cycled over it many times and fished its many streams. He also used the names of localaties in this area for the names/titles of some of the characters in his novels - Sir Edward (Leithen), Lord (Lamancha), Tommy (Deloraine), Lewis (Haystoun), Mary (Lamington), Lady (Manorwater), Alison (Westwater), etc. For more about the two latter ladies see the Tweedsmuir Title section below.
His book Witch Wood features the village of Woodilee which is a thinly disguised Broughton set in the Covenanting era of the 1640s - Buchan thought that this was his best novel.
A Lost Lady of Old Years is one of his earlier books about the real life John "Evidence" Murray who resided in a mansion on the northern outskirts of Broughton. Murray was secretary to Charles Edward Stewart (Bonny Prince Charlie). Murray turrned King's evidence resulting in the execution of, amongst others, Lord Lovat Fraser. Buchan wrote a piece about about John Murray of Broughton in Some eighteenth century byways, and other essays published in 1908.
John Burnet of Barnes which Buchan started writing when still a teenager is a historical romance set in 1678 concerning John Burnet of Barns and Marjorie Veith of Dawyck. Barns Tower which Buchan would have visited and featured in the book was in a ruinius state until recently. It has now been renovated (tastefully) and is a holiday let. Dawyck since the Veitches has been owned by the Naesmyths and Balfours. The magnificient gardens at Dawyck are now an outstation of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh and are open to the public.
Part of Richard Hannay's Scottish adventure in The Thirty-Nine Steps probably commences in Galloway then continues to the Upper Tweed Valley. Although the book is fictitious, like some of his other books, partiucularly Castle Gay there are sufficient clues and pointers in the text to indicate the location of where the action is supposedly taking place.
Biographies.
Buchan may be best remembered for his novels but he also wrote ten biographies which were of great importance to him.
His biographies in chronological order of publication are as follows:-
1911 Sir Walter Raleigh.
1913 The Marquis of Montrose.
1913 Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall.
1920 Francis and Riversdale Grenfell.
1924 Lord Minto.
1928 Montrose.
1932 Sir Walter Scott.
1934 Gordon of Khartoum.
1934 Oliver Cromwell.
1937 Augustus.
1940 Autobiography. Memory Hold-the-Door.
The best known of the biographies is that of Montrose, which was first published in September 1928, reprinted three more times that year and has been reprinted many times since then. Buchan received in 1928 the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for this biography.
Buchan spent fifteen years researching Montrose and it is now considered to be the standard work on the life of Montrose.
Buchan had written a much shorter biography titled The Marquis of Montrose published in 1913, which was not a success and with which Buchan was obviously dissatisfied. This book was not reprinted at the time, however a paperback edition was published in 1996.
In 1929, the year following the publication of Montrose, Buchan wrote the novel Witch Wood which covers the same period of history. In his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan, when discussing his novels, "thought that Witch Wood was his best and thought that it was historically true because -- I could have documented almost every sentence from my researches on Montrose" Montrose indeed, makes a cameo appearance in Witch Wood.
Buchan dedicated Montrose to his brother Willie who died in 1912 while home on leave from India where he had been in the Civil Service. This dedication comprised of a poem written by Buchan - Fratri Dilectissimo - see Poetry section below.
Buchan was delighted to be asked to write the biography of Lord Ardwall, as Ardwall's son, John Jameson, had been a close friend at Oxford and this friendship had continued. Ardwall is in a beautiful part of Galloway and Buchan spent many holidays there before and after his marriage. He chose this area for the start of Richard Hannay's Scottish adventure in his novel The thirty-nine steps. It should be mentioned that very close to Ardwall is the family seat of the Clan Hannay!
In 1924 Buchan was asked to assist with the biography of Lord Minto. Minto had been the Governor General of Canada 1899-1904. Buchan compiled the biography from Minto's notes and correspondence. This gave Buchan an insight into both Canadian politics and the qualities required for a good Governor General. This held him in good stead eleven years later when Buchan himself became Governor General of Canada.
The dedication at the beginning of Buchan's biography of Julius Caesar is to "Aircraftsman T. E. Shaw". This is Lt. Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence CB DSO (1888-1935) (Lawrence of Arabia). They were good friends and Buchan held him in high esteem both as a military strategist and also as a person. Buchan was instrumental in arranging the transfer of Lawrence from the Tank Corps to the RAF by talking to the head of the Air Force, Sir hugh Trenchard and also Baldwin the Prime Minister In 1939 Buchan wrote an article about Lawrence in the Canadian Defence Quarterly. Seven pages of Buchan's autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door are given over to Lawrence, most of this came from the article in the C.D.Q. of the previous year. Buchan describes the last time that he saw Lawrence - {I last saw him at the end of March 1935, when on a push-bike he truned up at Elsfield one Sunday morning and spent a long day with us. He was on his way from Bridlington to his Dorsetshire cottage ---- When he left I told my wife that at last I was happy about him and believed that he might become again the great man of action - he might organise, perhaps, our imperfect national defences. She shook her head. "He is looking at the world as God must look at it," she said, "and man can not do that and live." . . . A few weeks later he was dead.}
Buchan did not intend that Memory Hold-the-Door be his autobioigraphy. In the Preface he writes "The lover of gossip will find nothing to please him, for I have written at length only of the dead. Nor is it an autobiography, for I cannot believe that the external incidents of my life are important enough to be worth chronocling in detail."
Poetry
In 1898 Buchan at the third attempt gained the Newdigate prize for poetry. The poem that won the prize was titled The Pilrim Fathers which was prefaced by a short poem To The Adventurous Spirit of the North.
In 1917 Buchan published a book of poems titled Poems, Scots and English. This comprised of 28 of his poems of which half were in Scots and half in English. This book was dedicated to his brother Alastair, a 2nd. Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, who died of wounds after the Battle of Arras.
The iconic dedicatory poem in Montrose mentioned in the Biography section above can be read at Fratri Dilectissimo page.
In 1996 John Buchan's Collected Poems was published which was co-edited by Andrew Lownie and William Milne.
John Buchan was an admirer of Robert Burns. Buchan's book of poems The Northern Muse - an anthology of Scots vernacular Poetry, first published in 1924, contains 58 poems by Burns out of a total of 245. This includes five verses and the chorus of Auld Lang Syne. Buchan did recognise it as something special as in his Commentary at the end of the book Buchan refers to "Burn's masterpiece, which throughout the world, has become the song of re-united friends. I have heard it sung in Dutch on a Boer farm on the Swaziland border." Buchan also included three of his own poems in the book.
Buchan wrote the Foreward for a ten volume work on The complete writings of Robert Burns published in 1927.
Buchan even mentions Burns in his novel The thirty-nine steps. Richard Hannay while being pursued over the Tweed Valley hills takes refuge in a shepherd's cottage where the wife gives Hannay a plaid. "when I left that cottage I was the living image of a kind of Scotsman you see in the illustrations to Burns's poems."
Buchan would have been delighted to know that two of his poems were included in the New Minstrelsy of The Scottish Borders published in 2006.
John Buchan's father The Rev. John Buchan (1847-1911) was also a poet and published a book in 1881 titled Tweedside Echos and Moorland Musings. Five of his poems were also included In Praise of Tweed by W.S. Crockett who was a long serving Minister of Tweedsmuir Kirk. Crockett in the biographical note about the Rev John Buchan in his book mentioned that "His son is the well-known author of Sir Quixote of the Moors, Scholar Gipsies, Musa Piscatriix, John Burnet of Barns, Grey Weather, etc."
For the full searchable bibliography of all John Buchan's published work I strongly suggest a visit to the John Buchan Society website http://www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk which is well worth visiting and while you are at it why not join the Society?
Title of Lord Tweedsmuir.
Why did Buchan choose the title of Tweedsmuir for his honour when he was appointed Governer General of Canada in 1935? If you have any views on this the John Buchan Society would like to hear from you - see first item on their Home Page http://. www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk
My own views are based on the premise that the person choosing a title must have land/property at the location chosen. I am sure that he would have preferred Tweeddale but that title has for centuries been held by the Hays of Yester (Marchioness of Tweeddale). He might have liked Broughton but that was already taken by Lord Broughton. (This Broughton is Broughton Hall in Staffordshire). Also several Scottish families have Broughton in their titles such as Haldane of Broughton, Hamilton of Stonehouse and Broughton and McQueen of Braxfield and Broughton. His uncles the Masterton brothers owned several farms in Tweeddale and two of these were the Fruid and Carterhope farms in Tweedsmuir parish. Buchan new that these farms would be left to him so he took Tweedsmuir as his title as he owned or was about to own land in the parish. The farms came under a Compulsary Purchase Order as the land was required for the contruction of the Fruid reservoir. The Carterhope farmhouse was duly demolished as was that of the neighbouring Hawkshaw farm and the lands are now under the waters of the Fruid reservoir.
It is believed that JB thought that Manorwater- a tributary of the Upper Tweed - would be a suitable title. However, thankfully, he was dissuaded. He had given the name of Manorwater to a fictitous family in one of his early books A lost lady of old years. Strangely he gave that family the same heraldic armorial as the Buchan Clan - "He found her in the library, where above the fireplace the three lion's heads of Manorwater were cut deep in the Oak". JB had also given the Buchan Clan crest of a Sunflower to another fictitous family the Westwaters in Castle Gay. " The arrogant sheen of the magogany table, which mirrored the old silver and the great bowl of sunflowers (the Westwater crest)." The Westwater is also a tributuary, via the Lyne Water, of the Upper Tweed. Alison Westwater appeared in Castle Gay and also in The House of the Four winds." The Manorwater and the Westwater were probably some of JB's favourite fishing streams - would John Buchan have chosed a favourite fishing stream for his title? It does seem odd that JB assigned the Buchan Clan totems of the Three Lion's Heads and the Sunflower to Lady Manorwater and Alison Westwater respectively. (The Sunflower is the Logo for the John Buchan heritage Museum.) John Buchan's armorial can be seen in the Picture Gallery page.
Anna Buchan (1877-1948).
Anna the sister of John Buchan also wrote novels. Her writing however was the antithesis of that of her brother. A highly popular writer in her time, particularly in Scotland. She depicted tradional virtues and quiet living, a good comfort read much loved by Glasgow and Peebles folk.
Anna in the introduction to her book Unforgettable Unforgotten - the only book published in her own name in 1945 - wrote the following.
To My Gentle Readers.
You who read so faithfully my books may, perhaps, be interested in this family chronicle.
It was written in an effort to lighten dark days by remembering happier ones. My brother John used to say that when he wrote stories he invented but that I in my books was remembering.
Here in this chronicle is the fount of all my memories.
Anna Buchan.
(O'Douglas.)
List of Books by Anna Buchan
Under the Pseudonym of O’Douglas.
1913 Olivia
1917 The Setons
1920 Penny Plain
1922 Ann and her Mother
1924 Pink Sugar
1926 The Proper Place
1928 Eliza for Common
1930 The Day of Small Things
1932 Priorsford
1935 Taken by the Hand
1937 Jane’s Parlour
1938 People Like Ourselves (Omnibus)
1940 The House that is our Own.
Under the Name of Anna Buchan
1945 Unforgettable Unforgotten
Biography
1950 Farewell to Priorsford
Pink Sugar has now been reprinted as a paperback. 2009.
James W. Buchan (1882 - 1954) M.A. LL.D.
James, commonly known as Walter, John Buchan's brother was co-editor of the 3 Volume History of Peeblesshire published in 1924. This history is still considered the standard work on the subject. Walter was a historian and no doubt assisted John Buchan in historical research for his novels and like John Buchan was very knowledgable on the subject of Heraldry. Walter was Town Clerk for Peebles as was his uncle, also Walter, before him.
John Buchan Heritage Museum page.