John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

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John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir , GCMG , GCVO , CH , PC (born August 26, 1875 in Perth , Scotland , † February 11, 1940 in Montreal , Canada ) was a Scottish writer , journalist , publicist , intelligence officer and politician who Was Governor General of Canada .

Early years

John Buchan was the son of a pastor in Broughton Green in the county Peebleshire born. The family moved several times during his childhood so that he eventually went to school in Glasgow and attended the University of Glasgow here . He often spent his holidays with his grandparents in the Borders . He developed a great affection for this area, which often appears in his works. He later moved to Brasenose College in Oxford . Hilaire Belloc was one of his friends there . During this time he published his first magazine articles, and he also found publishers for his first stories.

Life as a writer and politician

After graduating, Buchan first worked as a journalist, but then went into politics. From 1901 he was private secretary for Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner , the high commissioner for South Africa. In South Africa he was responsible for reorganizing the administration after the Boer War . Two years later he returned to London and became a publicist at Nelson’s publishing house .

In 1907 Buchan married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor, a cousin of Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster . The couple had four children, two of whom lived in Canada for long periods. From 1910, Buchan began to write adventure novels, most of which were set in South Africa. During the First World War , Buchan was a war correspondent for the Times and state propaganda agencies in France .

During this time, the novel The thirty-nine steps ( The thirty-nine steps ) was created, which should be his most famous work and has since been filmed three times; The best known is the version of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock from 1935. This novel was followed by five other spy novels about the protagonist Richard Hannay . The model for this character was a friend from the time in South Africa, Edmund Ironside , who had worked as a spy during the Boer War.

Buchan later served in military intelligence, writing speeches for Sir Douglas Haig . In 1917 he went to the Ministry of Information , where he worked in a prominent position under Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook . In 1918 he was chief of the British secret service (Director of Intelligence). Experiences from this time went into his novels and stories.

After returning from the war, Buchan worked for the British news agency Reuters for a short time . He began writing on historical subjects and historical novels, but also thrillers . In addition, from 1918 John Buchan was a member of the jury on the committee for the award of the Hawthornden Prize , the oldest literary prize in Great Britain.

In 1927 he was elected Member of Parliament for the Scottish Conservatives . In 1934/35 Buchan represented the monarch as Lord High Commissioner at the General Synod of the Church of Scotland .

Governor General of Canada

In 1935 he was appointed Governor General of Canada and, for this reason, was promoted to peer baron Tweedsmuir . This happened at the express request of King George V , who could not imagine being represented by a commoner.

Buchan continued to write novels and other works, including his autobiography, during his tenure as governor-general. Life in Canada flowed noticeably into his work. His wife was also active as a writer during this time. Encouraged by her, Buchan launched the Governor's General's Award in 1936 , still one of Canada's most important literary prizes . Buchan founded the library at Rideau Hall with his wife .

Buchan took his job as the highest representative of the crown in the country very seriously. He and his wife traveled a lot through the country, including the arctic regions, and sought contact with the population. He worked to strengthen the Canadian identity and reduce the differences between the Anglophone and Francophone parts of the country. He also devoted himself to the consequences of the global economic crisis for the country and its people.

Lord Tweedsmuir's grave in Elsfield, near Oxford

Buchan received honorary doctorates from several Scottish and Canadian universities, as well as from Oxford University. On February 6, 1940, Buchan suffered a stroke in the morning , of which he died five days later - eleven months before the end of his term in office.

In honor of Buchan was in Ottawa a state funeral held. However, his ashes were then taken to England and buried in a village near Oxford, where he had bought a mansion as early as 1920.

Works (selection)

Detective novels

  • The six Richard Hannay novels:
    • The thirty-nine steps ( The Thirty-Nine Steps ), 1915
    • Greencoat ( Greenmantle ), 1916 (German edition Zurich 1971)
    • Mr. Standfast, or Something New in the West ( Mr Standfast ), 1918
    • The three hostages ( The Three Hostages ), 1924
    • The Courts of the Morning , 1929
    • The Jade Tray ( The Island of Sheep aka The Man From the Norlands ), 1936

Adventure novels

  • Drumming across Transvaal ( Prester John ), 1910
  • The four Edward Leithen novels:
    • The Power House , 1916
    • John MacNab , 1925
    • Basilissa ( The Dancing Floor ), 1926
    • Sick Heart River , 1941

stories

  • The night of Beltane ( The Outgoing of the Tide ), 1902
  • The Runagates Club , 1928

Biographies

literature

  • Jens-Peter Becker: The English spy novel. Historical development, subject matter, literary form. Goldmann, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-442-80019-6 ( The scientific paperback - humanities department 19).
  • Jost Hindersmann: The British espionage novel. From imperialism to the end of the cold war. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1995, ISBN 3-534-12763-3 (At the same time: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 1994: British spy novel and contemporary history. ).
  • Helmut Roewer , Stefan Schäfer, Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of the secret services in the 20th century . Herbig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2317-9 , p. 81.
  • Janet Adam Smith: John Buchan. A biography. Little u. a., Boston 1965.
  • Janet Adam Smith: John Buchan and his World. Thames and Hudson, London 1979.
  • Ursula Buchan: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps. A Life of John Buchan . London: Bloomsbury, 2019 ISBN 9781408870839

Web links

Commons : John Buchan  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry Seidel Canby (Ed.): Saturday Review. Volume 6. Saturday Review Associates, 1929, p. 1161.
  2. ^ JC Squire, Rolfe Arnold Scott-James: The London Mercury. Volume 33. Field Press Limited, 1936, p. 102.
  3. ↑ Source: Buchan Society, p. link below
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Tweedsmuir
1935-1940 		John Buchan
personal data
SURNAME Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buchan, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish writer and politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Perth, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1940
Place of death Montreal , Canada