Characters of WW1 - John Buchan

I have long admired the literary works of John Buchan, author of The Thirty Nine Steps, and last year, was pleased to visit the museum dedicated to his memory in Peebles. However, aside from his fame as an author, Buchan made a significant contribution to Britain’s war effort in WW1 and he went on to be a great politician and statesman. He died in office as the Governor General of Canada in 1940.

Buchan served as Private Secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa from 1901 to 1903, witnessing the end of the Boer War. His experiences influenced his writing first of Prester John, set in South Africa, and the background of his character, Richard Hannay, the hero of, The Thirty Nine Steps. Another of Buchan’s famous novels was, Greenmantle, published during the war in 1916. It describes a secret plot of the Germans to foment a holy war (jihad) in Persia and the Near East to cause dissent amongst the Muslim member of the Indian Army and spread turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa. Such a plot did actually exist and I have fictionalised in my own WW1 spy thriller, Now the Darkness Gathers, an account of how it was discovered and foiled. I recommend Peter Hopkirk’s, Like Hidden Fire, for the true history.

In 1916, Buchan was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Intelligence Corps, serving in France. However, after only a year, he was recalled to London and appointed as Director of Information in the rank of lieutenant colonel. His task was to lead the government’s propaganda campaign. A year later, he headed a department of intelligence in the new Ministry of Information.

Following the war, Buchan returned to the world of writing and acadaemia. However, since his university days, he had been involved with politics and in 1927, he was elected as the MP for the Combined Scottish Universities. He was a deeply religious man, too, the son of a Scottish minister, and in the years of 1933 and 1934, he was appointed by King George V as his Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1935, he was ennobled as Baron Tweedsmuir and appointed as the Governor General of Canada, a post to which he brought much longstanding knowledge of the country. In the years leading up to the outbreak of WW2, he worked hard to develop good relations with the US President Roosevelt, despite the latter’s reluctance to appear too cosy towards the British given that the policy of the US was one of isolationism and not to be sucked into a European war. Sadly, five months after signing the declaration that brought Canada into the war, Buchan suffered a minor stroke and fell, hitting his head on the side of a bath. He died a week later. His death prompted an outpouring of grief from the Canadian people. His ashes now lie in the churchyard of Elsfield in Oxfordshire where the Buchans had lived prior to their move to Canada. I have been fortunate enough to visit the grave.

Although well known as a prolific and talented author, Buchan’s contributions to the church, as a politician and academic, and finally, as a statesman are often overlooked. I wholeheartedly recommend a visit to the Buchan Museum in Peebles to learn more about this remarkable man.