John Buchan
John Buchan - A Famous Scottish Novelist, Biographer, Publisher, Lawyer & Diplomat
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, GCMG, GCVO, CH, PC (1875 - 1940) [pictured left - click to enlarge]. Although most famous as an author of both fiction and non-fiction, John Buchan was also a lawyer and politician and served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland but as his father was a Free Church Minister the family was to move around, firstly to Fife before settling in Glasgow. John studied in Glasgow's Hutcheson's Grammar School and Glasgow University (where he studied Classics and wrote poetry).
After Glasgow John Buchan went on to study law at Brasenose College, Oxford where, in 1898, he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. In 1899 he graduated with a First Class degree, a year in which he was also President of the Oxford Union. By this time he had already published three novels and a collection of essays. After graduating Buchan studied law for his bar exams while continuing to write books and work as a journalist. Amongst his friends at Oxford was the prolific writer Hilaire Belloc, Raymond Asquith (English barrister and son of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith) and Aubrey Herbert (a British diplomat, traveller and intelligence officer and a half brother to the famous Egyptologist, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon who discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb).
In 1901 was John Buchan was called to the Bar, was connected for a time with the Spectator, and then went to South Africa as the private secretary to Lord Milner, the High Commissioner to South Africa, where he spent 2 years..
He returned to London in 1903 and worked as a barrister while continuing to write prolifically. In 1906 he abandoned the law, became a partner of, and was appointed a Director of the publishers, Thomas Nelson & Sons (and later, after WWI, a director of Reuters). In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor, a cousin of the Duke of Westminster. With such a wide and varied career and influencial friends it is no wonder that much of this was used in his writing. In 1910 he wrote Prester John which was the first of his famous adventure novels. The following year saw the appearance of his duadenal ulcers which would also appear in one of his later novels.
Incredibly, in 1915, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau, and was a correspondent for The Times in France and published, possibly his most famous work, The Thirty-Nine Steps (which drew heavily from his experiences and has been made into movies several times). The Thirty-Nine Steps is a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I and has a hero (Richard Hannay) who was based on a friend and fellow Scot, Edmund Ironside (Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside commander of British forces in Persia in 1920-1921 and Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the early part of World War II). The sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps - Greenmantle, was released the following year, John Buchan had created a new kind of adventure story of espionage on Scottish moors and overseas, and they remain classics of the genre. Even though he was now famous he jjoined the British Army Intelligence Corps where as a 2nd Lieutenant he wrote speeches and communiques for Sir Douglas Haig.
Possibly there is already enough here for a Hollywood blockbuster about the life of John Buchan? But he went on to do so much more and in 1917 he returned from France to England to become Director of Information under Lord Beaverbrook. After the war Buchan became a Director of Reuters and began to write historical works (becoming president of the Scottish Historical Society), as well as continuing to write thrillers and historical novels. John Buchan wrote many well-respected historical works including biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus (1932), Oliver Cromwell (1934) and James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1913). He edited Nelson's popular history of the war in 24 volumes and followed it with his own History of the War (1921 - 1922).
In 1927 Buchan was elected as the Member of Parliament representing Scottish Universities as a Scottish Unionist MP (he believed that "every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist. If it could be proved that a Scottish parliament were desirable...Scotsmen should support it"). In 1933 he was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
In 1935 he became Governor General of Canada and was created Baron Tweedsmuir. Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had wanted him to go to Canada as a commoner, but King George V insisted on being represented by a peer. Buchan remained Governor-General of Canada until 1940, receiving both a peerage and a GCMG. He continued to write and his later books included novels, histories and his views of Canada while he also promoted the development of a Canadian culture. He travelled across Canada and atempted to unite the people of Canada and encouraged them to develop their own identity. He also wrote an autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door (said to be one of John F. Kennedy's favourite books).
In 1936 he founded the Governor General's Awards which remain some of Canada's premier literary awards. John Buchan and his experiences had led him to believe in the futility of war and he put great effort in trying avert the oncoming war (WWII), working closely with United States President Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King.
The "greatness" of John Buchan can be very difficult to deny. He was clearly a man of action but also a man of words and letters (recognized by Glasgow, St. Andrews, McGill, Toronto and Montréal Universities, all of which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and he was made an Honorary Fellow and an Honorary D.C.L. of Oxford). He also backed his convictions with actions (for example he gave financial and moral support to the young academic Roberto Weiss). Many will look to his written fictional work with crtisism but they are documents of their time! The political incorrectness percieved can not apply. His historic work stands critisism.
When, in 1940, he died, after suffering a stroke, the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King said in a radio broadcast
"In the passing of His Excellency, the people of Canada have lost one of the greatest and most revered of their Governors General, and a friend who, from the day of his arrival in this country, dedicated his life to their service."
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