James Buchanan 1st Baron Woolavington

James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington, GCVO, JP (16 August 1849 – 9 August 1935), known as Sir James Buchanan, Bt, from 1920 to 1922, was a British businessman, philanthropist, and racehorse owner and breeder. Buchanan was born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, the third and youngest son of Alexander Buchanan and his wife Catherine (née McLean), 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. 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. 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; together the couple had a daughter, the Honourable Catherine Buchanan, and a son who died in infancy. 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. Lady Woolavington died suddenly in October 1918. 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, which included the Poolham Estate, in Trust to his daughter.