George Buchanan (diplomat)

Diplomatic career

Buchanan entered diplomatic service in 1876, and served as Second Secretary in Tokyo, Vienna and Bern, and as Secretary in Rome. By 1899 he was serving on the Venezuelan Boundary Commission, and later that year he was appointed Chargé d'affaires at Darmstadt and Karlsruhe. In late 1901 he moved to Berlin, where he was appointed First Secretary at the British embassy. From 1903 to 1908 he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria, and in 1909 he was appointed as Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Invested with the Knight's Grand Cross of Royal Victorian Order in 1909, he was next sworn to the Privy Council In 1910 Buchanan was appointed as the British Ambassador to Russia. He kept abreast of the political developments in Russia and met some of the leading liberal reformists in the country.

When the Dardanelles were guaranteed by Germany to the Turks, Italy sent two secret documents vis the British diplomatic corps from Sir Michael Rodd to Sir George at St Petersburg. In it were the evidence that Russia needed to persuade Italy to support her Serbian policy in the Balkans. On 4 March 1915 Imperiali, the Italian envoy to London had presented the documents to Sir Edward Grey on an authority of 16 February from Sonnino, their foreign minister. France attached great importance to Italy's decision to join the allies. Buchanan was able to bring Count Sazonov to the negotiating table.

It has been suggested that this was secretly encouraged by the then Liberal government in London:

The British Ambassador George Buchanan was only too aware of the court's `pro-German sympathies'. He complained to the Duma President, M.V. Rodzianko, in November 1916 that he found it difficult to get an audience at court, and expressed his view `that Germany is using Alexandra Fedorovna to set the Tsar against the Allies. Elsewhere, however, Buchanan stated his view that the Empress was `the unwitting instrument of Germany'.

Buchanan had developed a strong bond with the Tsar, Nicholas II, and attempted to convince him that granting some constitutional reform would stave-off revolution. Buchanan actively supported the Duma in its efforts to change Russia's stately system during war-time. Nicholas's opinion of him was under the influence of the Tsarina's sway. Knowing that there were plots to stage a palace coup to replace him, Sir George formally requested an audience of the Tsar in the troubled early days of 1917. At his last meeting with Nicholas he pleaded with him in 'undiplomatic' language: "I can but plead as my excuse the fact that I have throughout been inspired by my feelings of devotion for Your Majesty and the Empress. If I were to see a friend walking through a wood on a dark night along a path which I knew ended in a precipice, would it not be my duty, sir, to warn him of his danger? And is it not equally my duty to warn Your Majesty of the abyss that lies ahead of you? You have, sir, come to the parting of the ways, and you have now to choose between two paths. The one will lead you to victory and a glorious peace – the other to revolution and disaster. Let me implore Your Majesty to choose the former."

Although the Tsar was touched by the Ambassador's devotion, he allowed his wife's malevolent attitudes to overbear the sensible advice he had been given. After the collapse of the Autocracy (see Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia), he developed close relations with the liberal Provisional Government led initially by George Lvov and later by Alexander Kerensky that formed after the February Revolution. At the same time, Buchanan had developed a fear of the dangers of Bolshevism and its growing support, he feared the toppling of the Russian Provisional Government and tried to warn of the fragilities of the Government and the dangers of a Bolshevik revolution. Buchanan had reported to London "They are more active and better organized than any other group, and until they and the ideas which they represent are finally squashed, the country will remain a prey to anarchy and disorder. If the Government are not strong enough to put down the Bolsheviks by force, at the risk of breaking altogether with the soviet, the only alternative will be a Bolshevik Government."However, after the events of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks ascension to power he was widely criticized for the failure to ensure that the Tsar Nicholas II and his family were evacuated from Russia before their execution by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg in 1918. It is now known that this was not his fault but that of the Tsar's first cousin, King George V who, fearful of revolutionary trends in Britain and the stability of his own throne, persuaded the Lloyd George government to rescind the offer they had made to provide sanctuary for the Imperial Family.

Buchanan was disappointed that the fledgling democracy offered by the Provisional Government was strangled by the Bolshevik coup

At the beginning of December 1918 Buchanan fell ill and for the good of his health he agreed that it was best he left Russia. The family left St Petersburg on 26 December 1918, arriving back in Leith in Scotland on 17 January 1919. His health collapsed soon after, forcing him to spend time recovering in Cornwall. After his recovery he was disappointed after his years of service not to be given a peerage and to only be offered a two year ambassadorship in Rome. he accepted the post, serving as ambassador to the Kingdom of Italy from 1919–21. While in Italy his wife was found to have terminal cancer and died in April 1921 soon after the family's return to England.

Sir George's autobiography, My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories, was published in 1923. It is believed that he had to leave out some of what he knew under threat of losing his pension. He died in 1924.

Honours

British decorations

Family

Sir George married on 25 February 1885 Lady Georgiana Meriel Bathurst (1863–1922), daughter of Allen Bathurst, 6th Earl Bathurst by the Hon. Meriel Leicester (1839–1872), daughter of George Warren, 2nd Baron de Tabley. Their daughter Meriel Buchanan (1886–1959) wrote several perceptive books about the revolution, which she witnessed, and key figures she had personally known. Meriel married Major Harold Wilfrid Knowling (1888–1954), Army Service Corps, and Welsh Guards, in May 1925; and died on 6 February 1959.

Work