John Buchan Biography

Scottish author and statesman (1875–1940)

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir GCMG GCVO CH PC DL (/ˈbʌxən/; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.

As a youth, Buchan began writing poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, publishing his first novel in 1895 and ultimately writing over a hundred books of which the most well-known is The Thirty-Nine Steps. After attending Glasgow and Oxford universities, he practised as a barrister. In 1901, he served as a private secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa towards the end of the Boer War. He returned to England in 1903, continued as a barrister and journalist. He left the Bar when he joined Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers in 1907. During the First World War, he was, among other activities, Director of Information in 1917 and later Head of Intelligence at the newly-formed Ministry of Information. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927.

In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to succeed the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada and two months later raised him to the peerage as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan promoted Canadian unity and helped strengthen the sovereignty of Canada cons*utionally and culturally. He received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.

Early life and education

Buchan was born at today's 18–20 York Place, a double villa now named after him, in Perth, Scotland. He was the first child of John Buchan – a Free Church of Scotland minister – and Helen Jane Buchan (née Masterton). He was brought up in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and spent many summer holidays with his maternal grandparents in Broughton in the Scottish Borders. There he developed a love for walking and for the local scenery and wildlife, both of which are often featured in his novels. The protagonist in several of his books is Sir Edward Leithen, whose name is borrowed from Leithen Water, a tributary of the River Tweed.

After the family moved to Glasgow, Buchan attended Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School. He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Glasgow at age 17, where he studied cl*ics as a student of Gilbert Murray, wrote poetry, and became a published author. He moved on to study Literae Humaniores (the Cl*ics) at Brasenose College, Oxford, with a Junior Hulme scholarship in 1895 and in his third year achieved a Senior Hulme scholarship, adding to his financial security. At Oxford, he made many friends including Raymond Asquith, Aubrey Herbert and Tommy Nelson. Buchan won the Stanhope essay prize in 1897 and the Newdigate Prize for poetry the following year; he was also elected as the president of the Oxford Union and had six of his works published, including a book of short stories (Grey Weather, 1899) and three of his first adventure novels (John Burnet of Barns, 1898; A Lost Lady of Old Years, 1899; The Half-Hearted, 1900)

Buchan had his first portrait painted in 1900 by a young Sholto Johnstone Douglas at around the time of his graduation from Oxford.

Author, journalist, war, and politics

Further information: List of works by John Buchan

After graduating from Oxford, Buchan read for and was called to the Bar in June 1901. In September 1901 he travelled to South Africa to become a private secretary to Alfred Milner, who was then the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Governor of Cape Colony, and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, making Buchan an early member of Milner's Kindergarten. He also gained an acquaintance with a country that would feature prominently in his writing, which he resumed, along with his career as a barrister, upon his return to London in 1903. In 1905, he published a legal book, The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Incomehttps://search.law.villanova.edu/Record/197978. In December 1906, he joined the Thomas Nelson & Sons' publishing company and was also a deputy editor of The Spectator. On 15 July 1907, Buchan married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor—daughter of the Hon.Norman Grosvenor, a son of the 1st Lord Ebury, and a cousin of the Duke of Westminster. Together, Buchan and his wife had four children, Alice, John, William, and Alastair.

In 1910, Buchan wrote Prester John, set in South Africa, another of his adventure novels. He began to suffer from duodenal ulcers, a condition that later afflicted one of his fictional characters, about the same time that he ventured into politics and was adopted as Unionist candidate in March 1911 for the Scottish Borders seat of Peebles and Selkirk. He supported some Liberal causes, such as free trade, women's suffrage, national insurance, and curtailing the powers of the House of Lords. But he did not support Home Rule in Ireland and what he considered the cl* hatred fostered by Liberal politicians such as David Lloyd George.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Buchan began writing a history of the war for Nelson's, the publishers, which was to extend to 24 volumes by the end of the war. He worked in the Foreign Office, and for a time was a war correspondent in France for The Times in 1915. In that same year, his most famous novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, a spy-thriller set just prior to the First World War, was published. The novel featured Buchan's oft-used hero, Richard Hannay, whose character was partly based on Edmund Ironside, a friend of Buchan from his days in South Africa. A sequel, Greenmantle, came the following year. In June 1916 Buchan was sent out to the Western Front to be attached to the British Army's General Headquarters Intelligence Section, to *ist with drafting official communiques for the press. On arrival he received a field-commission as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps.

Recognised for his abilities, the War Cabinet, under David Lloyd George, appointed him Director of Information in 1917, essentially leading Britain's propaganda effort. In early 1918, Buchan was made head of a Department of Intelligence within a new Ministry of Information under Lord Beaverbrook. Throughout the war, he continued writing volumes of the History of the War. It was difficult for him, given his close connections to many of Britain's military leaders, not to mention the government, to be critical of the British Army's conduct during the conflict but nonetheless did so in certain instances, being critical of government, politics or statements, or disagreeing with statistics. Buchan could enter comment on political events. He complimented Winston Churchill's "services to the nation at the outbreak of war for which his countrymen can never be sufficiently grateful ... but he was usually selected to be blamed for decisions for which his colleagues were not less responsible."

At one point, Beaverbrook had requested that Buchan meet with journalist and neo-Jacobite Herbert Vivian and admitted to Vivian that he had been a Jacobite sympathiser. Buchan was in fact ambivalent about the Jacobite cause but he did write romances about that adventurous period, for example, A Lost Lady of Old Years (1899), A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys (1922) and Midwinter (1923).

Following the close of the war, Buchan turned his attention to writing on historical subjects, along with his usual thrillers and novels. He moved to Elsfield, Oxfordshire in 1920 and had become president of the Scottish Historical Society and a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, and he also maintained ties with various universities. Robert Graves, who lived in nearby Islip, mentioned his being recommended by Buchan for a lecturing position at the newly founded Cairo University. In a 1927 by-election, Buchan was elected as the Unionist Party Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities. Politically, he was of the Unionist-Nationalist tradition, believing in Scotland's promotion as a nation within the British Empire but also as a cons*uent of the United Kingdom." The effects of the Great Depression in Scotland, and the subsequent high emigration from that country, also led him to reflect in the same speech: "We do not want to be like the Greeks, powerful and prosperous wherever we settle, but with a dead Greece behind us". He found himself profoundly affected by John Morley's Life of Gladstone, which Buchan read in the early months of the Second World War. He believed that Gladstone had taught people to combat materialism, complacency, and authoritarianism; Buchan later wrote to Herbert Fisher, Stair Gillon, and Gilbert Murray that he was "becoming a Gladstonian Liberal."

After the United Free Church of Scotland joined in 1929 with the Church of Scotland, Buchan remained an active elder of St Columba's Church, London. In 1933 and 1934, Buchan was further appointed as King George V's Lord High Commissioner to the General *embly of the Church of Scotland.

Beginning in 1930, Buchan aligned himself with Zionism. He was active and vocal in Parliament in condemning the treatment of Jews in Germany. To a m* demonstration organized by the Jewish National Fund in 1934, Buchan described Zionism as "a great act of justice ... a reparation for the centuries of cruelty and wrong which have stained the record of nearly every Gentile people." He was a friend of Chaim Weizmann and *isted him to keep alive Britain's commitment to a Jewish state. Despite this, Buchan was later described by Anthony Storr as being "overtly antisemitic". This is, however, a claim that does not hold up amidst the evidence of Buchan's active support to and friendship with Jews and supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland. As Ursula Buchan notes in her biography, the charge of anti-Semitism is almost entirely as a result of some unfavourable comments made by fictional characters, mostly to be found in the Hannay books. In The Thirty-Nine Steps, for example, the anti-Semitic comments of the murdered freelance spy, Scudder, are called 'eyewash' by Hannay and proved to be totally wrong by later events. She cautions, "it is important to avoid anachronism", that is, "acial and national stereotyping, favourable and unfavourable, was commonplace throughout all society" so "it is hardly surprising that characters in JB's novels should engage in it", reflecting that society. As a supporter of the Jewish people and a homeland, Buchan's name was inscribed in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund of Israel. His name was also in a National Socialist German Workers' Party publication, "Who's Who in Britain" (Frankfurt, 1938), reading "Tweedsmuir, Lord: Pro-Jewish activity. In one history of the Jewish experience in Canada, Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, is described as the "most visible supporter" of the Jews. Both Tweedsmuir and his wife Susan "spoke publicly in favour of Zionism, lending the cachet of the Crown" to the cause of a Jewish homeland. Susan Tweedsmuir's name was also entered into the Golden Book.

In recognition of his contributions to literature and education, on 1 January 1932, Buchan was granted the personal gift of the sovereign of induction into the Order of the Companions of Honour.

In 1935, Buchan's literary work was adapted for the cinema with the release of Alfred Hitch*'s The 39 Steps, starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, although Buchan's story was much altered. This came in the same year that Buchan was honoured with appointment to the Order of St Michael and St George on 23 May, as well as being elevated to the peerage, when he was ennobled by King George V as Baron Tweedsmuir, of Elsfield in the County of Oxford on 1 June. This had been done in preparation for Buchan's appointment as Canada's governor general; when consulted by Canadian prime minister R. B. Bennett about the appointment, the Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, William Lyon Mackenzie King, recommended that the King allow Buchan to serve as a commoner, but George V insisted that he be represented by a peer.

Buchan's name had been earlier put forward by Mackenzie King to George V as a candidate for the governor generalcy: Buchan and his wife had been guests of Mackenzie King's at his estate, Kingsmere, in 1924 and Mackenzie King, who at that time was prime minister, was impressed with Buchan, stating, "I know no man I would rather have as a friend, a beautiful, noble soul, kindly & generous in thought & word & act, informed as few men in this world have ever been, modest, humble, true, man after God's own heart." One evening in the following year, the Prime Minister mentioned to Governor General the Lord Byng of Vimy that Buchan would be a suitable successor to Byng, with which the Governor General agreed, the two being friends. Word of this reached the British Cabinet, and Buchan was approached, but he was reluctant to take the posting; Byng had been writing to Buchan about the cons*utional dispute that took place in June 1926 and spoke disparagingly of Mackenzie King.

Governor General of Canada

Mackenzie King delivers an address at the installation of Lord Tweedsmuir as Governor General of Canada, 2 November 1935The Lord Tweedsmuir in Native headdress, photo portrait by Yousuf Karsh, 1937

On 27 March 1935, Sir George Halsey Perley announced in the Canadian Parliament (in place of the ailing Bennett, who had recommended Buchan for the governor generalship) that the King "has been graciously pleased to approve the appointment of Mr. John Buchan" as the viceregal representative. The King approved the appointment, made by commission under the royal sign-manual and signet. Buchan then departed for Canada and was sworn in as the country's governor general in a ceremony on 2 November 1935 in the Legislative Council of Quebec (salon rouge) of the parliament buildings of Quebec.

By the time Buchan arrived in Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King had been sworn in as Prime Minister after the Liberal Party won the federal election held the previous month. Buchan was the first viceroy of Canada appointed since the enactment of the Statute of Westminster on 11 December 1931, and was thus the first to have been decided on solely by the monarch of Canada in his Canadian council.

Buchan brought to the post a longstanding knowledge of Canada. He had written many appreciative words about the country as a journalist on The Spectator and had followed the actions of the Canadian forces in the First World War when writing his Nelson History of the War, helped by talks with Julian Byng, before first visiting Canada in 1924. His knowledge and interest in increasing public awareness and accessibility to Canada's past resulted in Buchan being made the Champlain Society's second honorary president between 1938 and 1939. Buchan continued writing during his time as governor general, but he also took his position as viceroy seriously, and from the outset made it his goal to travel the length and breadth of Canada, including to the Arctic regions, to promote Canadian unity. He said of his job: "a Governor General is in a unique position for it is his duty to know the whole of Canada and all the various types of her people."

Buchan also encouraged a distinct Canadian iden*y and national unity, despite the ongoing Great Depression and the difficulty it caused for the population. Not all Canadians shared Buchan's views; he aroused the ire of imperialists when he said in Montreal in 1937: "a Canadian's first loyalty is not to the British Commonwealth of Nations, but to Canada and Canada's King," a statement that the Montreal Gazette dubbed as "disloyal." Buchan maintained and recited his idea that ethnic groups "should retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character" and "the strongest nations are those that are made up of different racial elements."

George V died in late January 1936, and his eldest son, the popular Prince Edward, succeeded to the throne as Edward VIII. Rideau Hall—the royal and viceroyal residence in Ottawa—was decked in black crepe and all formal entertaining was cancelled during the official period of mourning. As the year unfolded, it became evident that the new king planned to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, which caused much discontent throughout the Dominions. Buchan conveyed to Buckingham Palace and British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Canadians' deep affection for the King, but also the outrage to Canadian religious feelings, both Catholic and Protestant, that would occur if Edward married Simpson. By 11:December, King Edward had abdicated in favour of his younger brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York, who was thereafter known as George VI. In order for the line of succession for Canada to remain parallel to those of the other Dominions, Buchan, as Governor-in-Council, gave the government's consent to the British legislation formalising the abdication, and ratified this with finality when he granted Royal *ent to the Canadian Succession to the Throne Act in 1937. Upon receiving news from Mackenzie King of Edward's decision to abdicate, Tweedsmuir commented that, in his year in Canada as governor general, he had represented three kings.

In May and June 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured Canada from coast to coast and paid a state visit to the United States. Buchan had conceived the royal tour before the coronation in 1937; according to the official event historian, Gustave Lanctot, the idea "probably grew out of the knowledge that at his coming Coronation, George VI was to *ume the additional *le of King of Canada," and Buchan desired to demonstrate vividly Canada's status as an independent kingdom by allowing Canadians to see "their King performing royal functions, supported by his Canadian ministers." Buchan put great effort into securing a positive response from the King to the invitation in May 1937; after more than a year without a reply, in June 1938 Buchan headed to the United Kingdom for a personal holiday, but also to procure a decision on the possible royal tour. From his home near Oxford, Buchan wrote to Mackenzie King: "The important question for me is, of course, the King's visit to Canada." After a period of convalescence at Ruthin Castle, Buchan sailed back to Canada in October with a secured commitment that the royal couple would tour the country. Though he had been a significant contributor to the organisation of the trip, Buchan retired to Rideau Hall for the duration of the royal tour; he expressed the view that while the King of Canada was present, "I cease to exist as Viceroy, and retain only a shadowy legal existence as Governor-General in Council." In Canada itself, the royal couple took part in public events such as the opening of the Lions Gate Bridge in May 1939. The King appointed Tweedsmuir a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order while on the royal train, between Truro and Bedford, Nova Scotia.

Another factor behind the tour was public relations: the presence of the royal couple in Canada and the United States was calculated to s* up sympathy for Britain in anticipation of hostilities with National Socialist German Workers' Party Germany. Buchan's experiences during the First World War made him averse to conflict, and he tried to help prevent another war in co-ordination with Mackenzie King and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Still, Buchan authorised Canada's declaration of war against Germany in September, shortly after the British declaration of war and with the consent of King George, and thereafter issued orders of deployment for Canadian soldiers, sailors, and airmen as the *ular commander-in-chief of the Canadian armed forces.

Lord Tweedsmuir's grave in St Thomas's churchyard, Elsfield

On 6 February 1940, he slipped and struck his head on the edge of a bath, suffering a severe head injury after suffering a stroke at Rideau Hall. Two surgeries by Doctor Wilder Penfield of the Montreal Neurological Ins*ute were insufficient to save him, and his death on 11 February drew a radio eulogy by Mackenzie King: "In the p*ing 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." The Governor General had formed a strong bond with his prime minister, even if it may have been built more on political admiration than friendship: Mackenzie King appreciated Buchan's "sterling rec*ude and disinterested purpose."

After lying in state in the Senate chamber on Parliament Hill, Buchan was given a state funeral at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Ottawa. His ashes were returned to the UK aboard the cruiser HMS Orion for final burial at Elsfield, the village where he lived in Oxfordshire.

Legacy

In his last years, Buchan wrote his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door, as well as works on the history of Canada. He and Lady Tweedsmuir established the first proper library at Rideau Hall, and he founded the Governor General's Literary Awards, which remain Canada's premier award for literature. His grandchildren James and Perdita Buchan also became writers.

Buchan's 100 works include nearly 30 novels, seven collections of short stories, and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. He was awarded the 1928 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of the Marquess of Montrose, but the most famous of his books were the spy thrillers, and it is for these that he is now best remembered. The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene en*led his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American *le: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts the questions of the meaning of life in the Canadian wilderness.

Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in British Columbia is now divided into Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park and Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area. It was created in 1938 to commemorate Buchan's 1937 visit to the Rainbow Range and other nearby areas by horseback and floatplane. He wrote in the foreword to a booklet published to commemorate his visit: "I have now travelled over most of Canada and have seen many wonderful things, but I have seen nothing more beautiful and more wonderful than the great park which British Columbia has done me the honour to call by my name".

J.R.R. Tolkien admired Buchan's adventure stories; Buchan, along with other authors such as Sir H. Rider Haggard and William Morris, influenced Tolkien's own works.

His granddaughter Ursula wrote a biography of him, Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan (2019).

In the 21st century, his writing has come under scrutiny for its at*udes towards race. For instance, Roger Kimball states: "One cannot read far into the commentary on Buchan, ... before encountering some stiff criticism of some of his at*udes and language. The criticism resolves into three main charges: Buchan was a colonialist, ... Buchan was a racist ... Buchan was an anti-Semite:..." while an article in the Herald on Buchan's poem 'The Semitic Spirit speaks' concludes that it "is poisoned by prejudice".

Honours

Medals of John Buchan in the National Museum of ScotlandAppointments

1 January 1932: Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH)
23 May 1935: Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG)
2 November 1935: Chief Scout for Canada
2 November 1935: Honorary Member of the Royal Military College of Canada Club
28 May 1937: Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (PC)
15 June 1939: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)
: Honorary Fellow of Oxford University

Medals

1935: King George V Silver Jubilee Medal
1937: King George VI Coronation Medal

Awards

1897: Stanhope essay prize
1898: Newdigate Prize
1928: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
4 December 1940: Silver Wolf Award (posthumous)

Foreign honours

15 December 1918: Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy

Non-national honours

1937: Master of the Order of Good Cheer

Honorary military appointments

2 November 1935: Colonel of the Governor General's Horse Guards
2 November 1935: Colonel of the Governor General's Foot Guards
2 November 1935: Colonel of the Canadian Grenadier Guards

Honorary degrees

20 June 1934: University of Oxford, Doctor of Civil Law (DCL)
1936: University of Toronto, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
1936: University of Toronto, Doctor of Divinity (DD)
1937: Harvard University, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
1937: Yale University, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
: McGill University, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
: Université de Montréal, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
: University of Glasgow, Doctor of Laws (LLD)
: University of St Andrews, Doctor of Laws (LLD)

Honorific eponyms

Geographic locations

:British Columbia: Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park
:British Columbia: Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area
:British Columbia: Tweedsmuir Peak
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Avenue, Ottawa
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Avenue, Toronto
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Avenue, London
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Place, Deep River
:Manitoba: Tweedsmuir Place, Pinawa
:Manitoba: Tweedsmuir Road, Winnipeg
:Quebec: Buchan Street, Montreal
:Saskatchewan: Tweedsmuir
:Scotland: John Buchan Way, Broughton

Schools

:Alberta: Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, Okotoks
:British Columbia: Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary School, New Westminster
:British Columbia: Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School, Surrey
:British Columbia: Tweedsmuir Hall (student residence), University of British Columbia
:Ontario: John Buchan Senior Public School, Toronto
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Public School, North Bay
:Ontario: Tweedsmuir Public School, London

Organisations

:Scotland: John Buchan Centre, Broughton

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Buchan.Wikisource has original works by or about:
John BuchanWikimedia Commons has media related to John Buchan.

Queen's University Library, Ottawa, Canada, Checklist of Works by and About John Buchan, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1961
Buchan, John, A History of the Great War, Vol. I, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922
Buchan, John, A History of the Great War, Vol. II, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922
Buchan, John, A History of the Great War, Vol. III, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922
Buchan, John, A History of the Great War, Vol. IV, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922
Works by John Buchan in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
Works by John Buchan at Project Gutenberg
Works by John Buchan at Faded Page (Canada)
Project Gutenberg Australia: Works by John Buchan
Works by or about John Buchan at Internet Archive Please sign up for free to view original do*ents
Works by John Buchan at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Works by John Buchan at Open Library
Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Buchan
Governor General of Canada: Lord Tweedsmuir
The Canadian Encyclopedia: John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
The John Buchan Society
John Buchan Museum
John Buchan at IMDb
John Buchan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
John Buchan at Library of Congress, with 208 library catalogue records
John Buchan Letters at Dartmouth College Library
A Time Magazine book review, 1940: Link

Family

Susan Grosvenor
John Buchan
William Buchan
Alastair Francis Buchan
Anna Masterton Buchan

Other

Works

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