Clydesdale & Tweeddale Conservative MP David Mundell was amongst the guests at Saturday’s opening of The John Buchan Story, the latest chapter in the museum marking the life of one of Scotland’s most distinguished sons.
John Buchan, first Lord Tweedsmuir, was a novelist, MP, soldier, historian, biographer and finally Governor-General of Canada.
The family’s long links with the Borders come through John Buchan’s mother, Helen Masterton, who was born and brought up in Broughton, near Biggar. She met and married the Revd John Buchan, who had been preaching in the former Free Presbyterian Church at Broughton.
And at the weekend a new centre marking the life of her son – possibly best known for his books about the adventures of John Hannay – was opened in Peebles by Gordon Campbell, High Commissioner of Canada.
Mr Mundell, who is MP for Clydesdale and the Tweeddale area, said this week: “I was delighted to be able to attend the opening of the Trust’s new centre, fittingly based in the Chambers Institution gifted to the town by William Chambers the publisher of dictionary fame who was born in Peebles.
“Buchan may have died in 1940 but his amazing legacy lives on - from his books, some of which have been made into films, to his work in Canada, where he is still the most popular non Canadian Governor General ever.
“Those behind the John Buchan Heritage Museum Trust are to be congratulated for the fantastic work they have done in keeping this great man’s work to the fore,” added Mr Mundell.
The John Buchan Centre was established in 1983 in the former Free Presbyterian Church at Broughton where his father had preached.
It was established in 1983 by Sheila Scott and Brian Lambie, the Biggar historian largely responsible for setting up Biggar Museum Trust, now one of Scotland’s most respected independent museum groups.
With the help and enthusiasm of local historians, the then directors of the Biggar Museums Trust leased the former Church in the Biggar Museum Trust’s name. It operated successfully for almost 30 years - and received nearly twenty thousand visitors - thanks to the enormous effort and dedication of local trustees and volunteers.
However Biggar Museums Trust had to terminate the lease because of concerns over a growing potential liability for repairs and maintenance of a building which had been built in 1848.
The John Buchan Society and a board of trustees, the John Buchan Heritage Museum Trust, then set about finding an alternative location. They considered a number of alternatives, including buying the old church and staying in Broughton, but eventually concluded that re-locating the Museum to the Chambers Institution in Peebles was the best solution.
John Buchan’s parents, brother and sister lived long in the town of Peebles; his brother Walter serving as Town Clerk and Procurator Fiscal, and his sister Anna writing about Peebles under her pen name of O.Douglas till her death in 1947.