James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington

James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington, (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.

Early life Buchanan was born in Brockville, Province of 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.

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 England for bottled Scotch whisky and set about producing his own, the Buchanan Blend, which is still available today. He went into business on his own in 1884. Buchanan did not, however, produce his own whisky. It was produced for him by the Glasgow blenders W. P. Lowrie & Co.

Thoroughbred racing For more than two decades, Woolavington was a significant owner/breeder in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing who twice won The Derby and 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. He set up a stud farm at his Sussex estate, Lavington Park, East Lavington, which he had bought in 1903. for "public and local services" and was raised to the peerage in the 1922 New Year Honours as Baron Woolavington, of Lavington, in the County of Sussex, for being a "generous supporter of many public and charitable objects". However, it is said that he paid £50,000 for his peerage, signing the cheque "Woolavington" and dating it 2 January – the day after the title was to be gazetted – so that the payment would bounce if he did not receive the honour he had been promised. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 1931 New Year Honours.

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;

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 and was buried in the nearby churchyard of Graffham. The manor of Graffham was bought by Euan Wallace MP.

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