James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington

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Vanity Fair
in 1907.

James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington,

philanthropist
, and racehorse owner and breeder.

Early life

Buchanan was born in

Brockville, Ontario, Canada, the third and youngest son of Alexander Buchanan and his wife Catherine (née McLean),[1] Scottish immigrants, but his parents returned to the United Kingdom shortly after he was born and he was brought up in Larne, where his father worked as a quarry manager. Due to ill health as a child, he was educated privately.[2]

Business career

Buchanan joined William Sloan & Co, a Glasgow shipping firm, as an office boy when he was fourteen or fifteen, and was later promoted to be a clerk. In 1868, he joined his brother William in his grain business, also in Glasgow. In November 1879, he moved to London as an agent for the Leith whisky blenders Charles Mackinlay & Co.

He realised that there was an untapped market in

buggy pulled by a black pony and accompanied by a liveried footman.[2]

In 1909, Buchanan proposed a merger between the "big three" whisky firms: Buchanan's,

Distillers Company. Buchanan was a director, but his age and failing health (he had never been in the best of health) meant he played little part in the company, attending only a single board meeting.[2]

Other interests

Buchanan was vice-president of the

High Sheriff of Sussex
in 1910.

Philanthropy

Menin Gate at Midnight by Will Longstaff at the Australian War Memorial
Menin Gate at Midnight by Will Longstaff at the Australian War Memorial donated by Woolavington to the Australian Government
Ogden's cigarette card depicting Coronach and Lord Woolavington's racing colours from 1926

He spent much of his wealth on philanthropic projects. He bought the

Licensed Victuallers' School, and £2,500 to the Licensed Victuallers' Benevolent Institution.[2] In 1928 Woolavington purchased the Will Longstaff painting Menin Gate at Midnight for 20,000 Guineas (equivalent to £21,000) and presented it to the Australian Government. It was then being displayed in the United Kingdom and Australia before becoming a core part of the Australian War Memorial collection.[3]

Thoroughbred racing

For more than two decades, Woolavington was a significant owner/breeder in the sport of

St. Leger Stakes. Among his best known runners were Epsom Lad, Hurry On, who became the foundation sire for his stud, Captain Cuttle, Coronach, Press Gang, and Coventry Stakes winner Manitoba who went on to become the leading sire in Australia in 1944 and 1945.[4] He set up a stud farm at his Sussex estate, Lavington Park, near Petworth, which he had bought in 1903.[2] He was elected to the Jockey Club in 1927.[2]
He also bred pedigree cattle and sheep.

Honours

Buchanan was created a

Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 1931 New Year Honours.[10]

Family and personal life

On 5 December 1891, Buchanan married a young widow thirteen years his junior, Annie Eliza Bardolph (née Pounder). Annie already had a son and a daughter;[2] together the couple had a daughter, the Honourable Catherine Buchanan, and a son who died in infancy.[1] Annie was a nurse and worked in London hospitals during the First World War.

In 1903, Woolavington bought the manor of Graffham from the Wilberforce family, and built a village hall.[11]

Lady Woolavington died suddenly in October 1918.[2]

The peerage and baronetcy became extinct on Woolavington's death at Lavington Park in August 1935, aged 85. He left an estate worth over £7 million and was buried in the nearby churchyard of Graffham.[2] The manor of Graffham was bought by Euan Wallace MP.[11]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32151. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ "Menin Gate at midnight | Australian War Memorial". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Woolavington, James (1st Baron) (1849–1935)". The National Horseracing Museum.
  5. ^ "No. 31830". The London Gazette. 19 March 1920. p. 3432.
  6. ^ "No. 31712". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1919. p. 2.
  7. ^ "No. 32598". The London Gazette. 3 February 1922. p. 954.
  8. ^ "No. 32563". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1921. p. 10709.
  9. ^ Fenton, Ben (22 May 2006). "Was this the richest (and most secretive) British tycoon ever?". The Daily Telegraph.
  10. ^ "No. 33675". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1930. p. 7.
  11. ^ a b "Graffham Pages 58-60 A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester". British History Online. Retrieved 19 September 2022.

References

Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation
Baron Woolavington

1922–1935 		Extinct
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Lavington)
1920–1935 		Extinct
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