Sir Andrew Buchanan,
1st Baronet of Dunburgh, GCB, PC, DL

1807 – 1882

Sir Andrew was a member of the Buchanans of Auchintorlie through Drumhead – Cadets of Leny.

Sir Andrew was the only son of James Buchanan of Blairvadach, Ardenconnel, Dumbartonshire, and Janet, eldest daughter of James Sinclair, 12th Earl of Caithness.

He married twice:

1. 1839 to Francis Catherine (-1845), daughter of The Very Rev. Edward Mellish, Dean of Hereford and had issue.

2. 1857 Hon. Georgiana Elizabeth Stuart (1821-1904), a daughter of Maj-Gen. Robert Walter Stuart, 11th Lord Blantyre, no children.

He entered the diplomatic service in 1825 and spent his early career in Constantinople and Corfu. He was in St Petersburg from 1838 to 1841, when he moved to Florence, before returning to St Petersburg in 1844. In 1852 he moved to the Swiss Confederation, and in 1853 to Denmark.

After service in Madrid from 1858 and subsequently in the Hague from 1860, he held postings in Prussia (1862), Russia (1864) and Austria (1871-1878).

He was created a Baronet in 1878.

Sir George Buchanan (1854-1924), the sixth child to Sir Andrew and Francis Mellish, was also a diplomat. He was stationed with his family at the court of Emperor Nikolai II at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. His daughter, Meriel Buchanan (1886-1959) subsequently wrote about their experiences of this time (“Dissolution of Empire”). The Buchanan family was connected by marriage with the Mellishes of Hodsock Priory in Nottinghamshire and succeeded the Mellishes there when the last of that family died.

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