John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, 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 best 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 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.
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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 (Greek and Latin 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, journalist, war, and politics
After graduating from Oxford, Buchan read for and was called to the Bar in June 1901, as a member of the Middle Temple. 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 Income. 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, 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 class 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 assist with drafting official communiques for the press. On arrival he received a field-commission as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps.
Governor General of Canada
On 27 March 1935, Sir George Halsey Perley announced in the Canadian Parliament (in place of ailing Conservative Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett) that the King had appointed Mr. John Buchan as the viceregal representative. The King approved the appointment, made by commission under the royal sign-manual and signet. Buchan, by this time elevated to the peerage as the first Baron Tweedsmuir, 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 Lord Tweedsmuir 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. Tweedsmuir was the first Governor General 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.
Tweedsmuir 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 Nelson's History of the War, and was helped by talks with Julian Byng, during a visit Canada in 1924. He had also written a memoir of a previous Governor General, Lord Minto (1898–1904), published in 1924. His knowledge and interest in increasing public awareness and accessibility to Canada's past resulted in Tweedsmuir being made the Champlain Society's second honorary president between 1938 and 1939. He continued writing during his time in Canada, but he also took his position as Governor General seriously, and from the outset made it his goal to travel the length and breadth of Canada, including to the Arctic regions, and promoting Canadian unity in the process. 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."
Tweedsmuir encouraged a distinct Canadian identity as well as national unity, despite the ongoing Great Depression and the difficulty it caused for the population. He strengthened the sovereignty of Canada, constitutionally and culturally. However, 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 to Canada's King," a statement that the Montreal Gazette dubbed as "disloyal" but that was largely because the news release did not include "and to Canada's King" which Tweedsmuir had added by hand to his typed draft after it had been distributed to the media. Tweedsmuir stated 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."
Legacy
When Buchan died in Canada in February 1940 as Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir, he was widely and deeply mourned throughout the English-speaking world and beyond, both as writer and statesman. His last role gave emphasis to him as statesman but it is as a writer of popular thrillers for which he is mostly remembered now. Novelist Graham Greene wrote, eleven years after Tweedsmuir's death, that the settings, pace and pursuits in The Thirty-Nine Steps "were to be a pattern for adventure-writers ever since." He and his brother Hugh co-authored The Spy's Bedside Book and dedicated it "To the Immortal Memory of Wm Le Queux and John Buchan." Fifty years after Buchan's death, historian David Stafford wrote that "his impact on the genre was profound, and he has left a mark that has remained strong to this day." J.R.R. Tolkien admired and was influenced by Buchan's adventure stories. And it continues. Distinguished military historian Sir John Keegan in 2004 wrote that Buchan "was a writer touched by genius." In a list of "The 100 best novels written in English, The Guardian newspaper in 2015 placed The Thirty-Nine Steps at 42nd.
Buchan's 100 works and more 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. The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts the questions of the meaning of life in the Canadian wilderness.
In Canada as Governor General, he founded the Governor General's Literary Awards, which remain Canada's premier awards for literature. He and Lady Tweedsmuir established the first proper library at Rideau Hall. His grandchildren Ursula, David, James and Perdita Buchan also became journalists and/or writers. His granddaughter Ursula wrote a biography of him, Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan (2019).
As Governor General and statesman, he helped strengthen relations between Britain and America, via his position in Canada as a prominent member of the British Commonwealth, at a critical period in world history. His breadth of experience, interests, knowledge and vision allowed him to be an interpreter of Britain, Canada, and the United States to each other. His contribution to Canada, reflecting his accomplishments and character, were recognized when the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, as a "person of national historic significance" in 2010. He left a living legacy in that at least four of his Canadian successors admired or took inspiration from his approach to the role of Governor General: Vincent Massey (1952–1959); General Georges Vanier (1959–1967); Adrienne Clarkson (1999–2005); and David Johnston (2010–2017).
Honours
Appointments
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
1900: Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps: South Africa 1902, South Africa 1901 and Transvaal
1918: British War Medal
1918: Victory Medal
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)
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