John Michael Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan
of that Ilk
Chief of the Name and Arms of Buchanan
In August 2018 Michael Buchanan was confirmed as Chief of the Name and Arms of Buchanan by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, head of the Lyon Court in Scotland. He is the first Chief of the Clan in over 340 years.
“The Buchanan,” John Michael Buchanan of that Ilk, was born on 14 September 1958. He is the son of John Neil Buchanan Baillie-Hamilton of Arnprior and the Hon. Caroline Barbara Barrie. Michael married “The Lady Buchanan,” Paula Frances Hickman M.D., daughter of John Hickman, on 22 October 1994. Michael graduated from Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, with a Master of Arts (M.A.). Michael is the manager of Cambusmore Estate in the southern highlands near Callander, Stirlingshire. He has four children including heir apparent, Angus John Buchanan younger of that Ilk, Bruce, Lucy and Rory. Click here to learn more about the Chiefs family
Michael and Paula live at Cambusmore, Callander, Perthshire, Scotland. Click here to learn about the Estate: the Seat of the Clan.
Below is an interview with the chief;
22 minutes, covering a variety of Chiefly subjects…
Below is a Webinar, hosted by Clan Colquoun regarding the Chiefs Inauguration and the role of Chief in Todays society
Interview with Mike on the BBC Happy news of 2022 at the 10:45 minute mark…
CAMBUSMORE - Seat of the Clan Buchanan
Meet the Chief
From The Lady Buchanan, posted in BuchananBanner #50-4
Mike was born in Edinburgh and for the first few months he and his parents lived at Straid, a house on Cambusmore Estate, which the American based singer songwriter, Sheena Easton, is thought to have lived at for a short while, but is now used as a B&B. Then at around 6 months old, he moved into the estate's 'big house', Cambusmore, where he still lives today.
Mike then went to the local primary school in Callander until he was the right age to go to Craigflower, a prep school in Fife. From there he went to Wellington College in England and after this to Oxford University to read Engineering.
He gained an exhibition to study at Christchurch, as he had done very well in his previous exams from school.
During three hard working, but fun packed years, he rowed for a Christchurch junior eight which won their class. He also continued his hobby of rifle shooting from being in the school team at Wellington to representing Scotland in their target and match rifle teams.
Indeed it soon became apparent that he had a real ability and good eye for straight accurate shooting over both short and long distances from 25 yards to 1200 yards. As such he was selected for eight teams to represent Oxford University against Cambridge. For these he was awarded eight half blues and was in five winning varsity teams. These were in the disciplines of pistol, small bore, target and match rifle.
After graduating from Oxford with an MA in Engineering, Mike joined Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, now part of the Jacobs Law group. He worked for them for 7 years, including two years in Sri Lanka where he helped build the Victoria hydroelectric dam and gained chartered civil engineer status.
Then Mike returned to Scotland, specifically to Edinburgh University, to study for and gain an MBA. Following this he spent two years working with a small start-up firm supplying automation equipment to industry before returning to the family patch at Cambusmore.
Soon after returning to work on the Estate with his father, Mike was selected to represent Scotland at Target Rifle in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. Going to Canada for these games was a big privilege and adventure which I remember well, since I was Mike's fiancee at this stage and we went over to Canada together.
Mike and his team partner achieved fourth place in the fullbore pairs in which 22 countries entered, making it the discipline with the largest entry in these games. Interestingly it is the only event in the Commonwealth Games which is open to both men and women. Mike has also toured with British or Scottish teams to Canada, Kenya, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
After we married, Mike continued working on Cambusmore Estate while we raised our 4 children.
During this time he has been Captain of the Scottish Match Rifle team for 9 years, leading the Scottish team which beat England, Wales and Ireland to win the Elcho Shield at Bisley for a record 4 times in a row for Scotland. (Our first dog was called Elcho !)
Mike has also won the main national championship in the Match Rifle class, called the Hopton, which is competed for over ranges from 1,000 to 1,200 yards at Bisley Camp, Bisley being the National Shooting Centre for the UK.
Over 100 people enter this competition which takes place over four days of individual competitions.
The Hopton is awarded to the person who gets the highest aggregate score and as such is highly competitive and a much prized award. Mike has won the Hopton an impressive 5 times.
Mike has also been a Community Councillor (non political) and chaired or served as trustee on three charities and two other rifle clubs.
After the great honour of becoming the Clan Chief of Clan Buchanan, Mike is now looking forward to travelling round the world as much as he can to meet fellow clan members and do what he can to work with the CBSI in supporting the worldwide Buchanan Clan.
