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John Buchan Biography & Facts

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 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 constitutionally 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 classics as a student of Gilbert Murray, wrote poetry, and became a published author. He moved on to study Literae Humaniores (the Classics) 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, journalism, war, and politics 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, another of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. 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 the political arena and was adopted as Unionist candidate in March 1911 for the Borders seat of Peebles and Selkirk; he supported free trade, women's suffrage, national insurance, and curtailing the powers of the House of Lords, while opposing the welfare reforms of the Liberal Party, and what he considered the class hatred fostered by Liberal politicians such as David Lloyd George. With the outbreak of the First World War, Buchan went to write for the British War Propaganda Bureau and worked as a correspondent in France for The Times. He continued to write fiction, and in 1915 published his most famous work, The Thirty-Nine Steps, a spy-thriller set just prior to the First World War. The novel featured Buchan's oft-used hero, Richard Hannay, whose character was 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 assist 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, Buchan was appointed as the Director of Information in 1917, under Lord Beaverbrook—which Buchan said was "the toughest job I ever took on"—and also assisted Charles Masterman in publishing a monthly magazine detailing the history of the war, the first edition appearing in February 1915 (and later published in 24 volumes as Nelson's History of the War). It was difficult for him, given his close connections to many of Britain's military leaders, to be critical of the British Army's conduct during the conflict. At Beaverbrook's request, Buchan met with journalist and neo-Jacobite Herbert Vivian and admitted to Vivian that he was a Jacobite sympathiser. Following the close of the war, Buchan turned his attention to writing on historical subjects, along with his usual thrillers and novels. By the mid-1920s, he was living in Elsfield, Oxfordshire, 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 a.... Discover the John Buchan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Buchan books.