William Buchan , 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir William James de L ' Aigle Buchan , 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir ( 10 January 1916 – 29 June 2008 ) , also known as " William Tweedsmuir " , was an English peer and author of novels , short stories , memoirs and verse . He was the second son of the writer and Governor General of Canada , John Buchan . Early life and career . Brought up at Elsfield Manor , outside Oxford , he frequently wrote poetry as a boy and appeared as " Bill " in his aunt Anna Masterton Buchan ' s popular novels , written under the pen - name " O . Douglas " . His mother , Susan Charlotte Grosvenor , was a close relative of the Duke of Westminster . Visitors to the family home included a 15 - year - old Jessica Mitford in the summer of 1932 , T . E . Lawrence , a week before his death in 1935 , and , that same year , Virginia Woolf , who called him " a simple " . Buchan attended the Dragon School in Oxford , then Eton , and won the Harvey English verse prize there . At New College , Oxford , he " enjoyed a riotous year " , according to an obituary in " The Daily Telegraph " , before dropping out . ( A different picture of his personality was given by an obituary in the " Liverpool Daily Post " , which described him during his schoolboy period as " a shy and solitary figure , and this mood continued into New College , Oxford " . Visiting the set of Alfred Hitchcock ' s film version of " The Thirty - Nine Steps " , a novel written by his father , the young man became interested in the movie industry , and Buchan senior got him a job working with Hitchcock at Gaumont - British Motion Picture Corporation . His salary as third assistant director was a token five shillings a week , so he lived off an allowance from his parents and lodged in London with the writer Elizabeth Bowen . It was becoming clear to him that he was being edged out of his job at Gaumont - British when a throat ailment resulted in an operation , causing him to leave sooner . To recuperate , he went to Canada , where his father was serving as governor general . On the order of the Canadian prime minister , Mackenzie King , the young Buchan was barred , along with his brother Alastair , from a nightclub outside Ottawa . King disapproved of Buchan ' s parents , in particular regarding his father as a " libertine " . He then moved to New York in 1937 , where his father provided him with literary connections . At one point he asked the critic Alexander Woollcott for a job but was told , " When I was a boy you were supposed to go to the bottom of the nearest tree and climb steadily until you got to the top . " At the suggestion of French film director and actor Michel Saint - Denis , Buchan visited Peggy Ashcroft , who had acted in " The 39 Steps " , and the pair began a two - year affair . Buchan then returned to England at the age of 21 , but soon spent three months in Florence , Italy , and on his return met Kenneth de Courcy , publisher of " Intelligence Digest " and carried dispatches from de Courcy to France . On one occasion Buchan visited Otto von Habsburg , claimant to the throne of Austria , who questioned him closely about British politics . In 1939 Buchan married Nesta Crozier , and the couple had a daughter . He also co - founded " The Pilot Press " , which published his short ( at 10 , 000 words ) but admiring book on Winston Churchill ( a stance at odds with that of his father ) , and later his brief history of the Royal Air Force . He learned of the death of his father in 1940 from a news hoarding . War service . He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in February 1940 and joined No . 32 Squadron , flying Hawker Hurricane s on patrols in the Western Approaches . He was transferred to Egypt , then to No . 261 Squadron in Iraq . He flew over Palestine and served in the defence of Cyprus . He initially served in the ranks , and was a leading aircraftman prior to being commissioned as a pilot officer on probation on 20 January 1941 ( with seniority from 14 January ) , the commission was confirmed , and he was promoted to war substantive flying officer , precisely a year later . After the Japanese invasion of Singapore , 261 Squadron was sent to reinforce the air force on Java . By the time it arrived at Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) , on the carrier " Indomitable " , the pilots were ordered to fly to RAF Station China Bay on that island . On Easter Sunday , 5 April 1942 , the squadron saw intense action against Japanese bombers from five aircraft carriers mounting a major attack against Colombo . When the Japanese force withdrew four days later , the carrier " Hermes " and two cruisers had been sunk , and only six of 261 Squadron ' s original 18 aircraft were serviceable . He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 20 January 1943 . Buchan twice had to bale out of his aircraft and came close to death on other occasions . At one point a cannon shell struck behind his cockpit seat ; on another , a shell hit his ammunition reserve but didn ' t go off . After serving with air defence for Ceylon and Madras , he was transferred to air headquarters in Calcutta for six months , then returned to join No . 17 Squadron in Ceylon . He was back in England in April 1945 to serve at RAF Training Command , where he compiled a history , " The Royal Air Force at War " , an account of the daily lives of servicemen , and was promoted to squadron leader before ending his service . This was published by his " Pilot Press " , as mentioned above . Later life and career . His marriage broke up during the war , and in 1946 he divorced his first wife and married Barbara Ensor , with whom he had three sons and three daughters , including the writer James Buchan and Ursula Buchan , gardening columnist for " The Daily Telegraph " . That marriage ended in divorce in 1960 . After the war , Buchan worked in Glasgow for the explosives division of Nobel Industries , then became London editor of " Reader ' s Digest " . He spent three years with the magazine and claimed that he came up with the story " How My Dog Taught Me to Pray " . Buchan founded a public relations company , which went out of business by the late 1960s , then did work for Norwest Holst , a large construction company , and later for Elf Aquitaine , the French national oil company . Simultaneously , Buchan pursued his literary career . A short story collection , " The Exclusives " , was published in 1943 . He next published " Personal Poems " in 1952 and " Kumari " in 1955 , a novel set in Calcutta . Two thrillers , " Helen All Alone " ( 1961 ) and " The Blue Pavilion " ( 1969 ) , followed . He also edited the correspondence of John Masefield and the violinist Audrey Napier - Smith , " Letters to Reyna " , which appeared in 1982 . He was best known for his " John Buchan : a Memoir " , also published in 1982 , and his autobiography , " Rags of Time " , which appeared in 1990 . On the death of his brother , Johnnie , in 1996 , William Buchan succeeded to the title , taking his seat in the House of Lords . There he spoke once , on the case for an elected mayor of London . In 1960 , the year his second marriage was dissolved , Buchan married a third time , to Sauré Tatchell , with whom he had a son . According to Buchan ' s obituary in " The Daily Telegraph " , in addition to the eight children of his three marriages " there was also another daughter . " Buchan ' s eldest son , Toby ( born in 1950 ) , succeeded to the peerage . Reception of his writings . The memoir of his father ( 1982 ) was regarded as his best book , but his autobiography , " The Rage of Time " ( 1990 ) , had its admirers , according to an obituary in the " Liverpool Daily Post " . His book of poems , published in 1952 , was praised in the " Times Literary Supplement " , which described his voice as " winning and sincere " . The reviewer wrote , " In writing to please himself , he will please others too , for his unselfconcious sympathies are easy to share , his young man ’ s experience corresponds with that of half his generation , his turn for verbal music is quietly refreshing , and everywhere competent . " " Kumari " , published in 1955 , has been described as " a lush , complex novel about the experiences and romances of a young man in 1930s India " . One reviewer wrote that the book tells the reader as much about India and British rule there " as a hundred official publications , or , it might be added , a dozen travel books " . Buchan wrote his first thriller , " Helen All Alone " , deliberately in the vein of his father ’ s novels , but with a woman as the main character , a point which provoked criticism in " The Times " . The reviewer declared , " Women in a thriller should be decorative , not pivotal . " The " TLS " , in contrast , praised the book ' s description of atmosphere and scenery . Works . Each year links to corresponding " [ year ] in literature " or " [ year ] in poetry " article : Buchan also wrote introductions for literary works — including " Don Quixote " and the 1994 Oxford Classics edition of his father ' s thriler " Mr Standfast " .