Elder Buchanan

This picture was taken in June of 1952. Pres. McKay was returning to the US after making a tour of Europe and stopped off in Glasgow on his way to Prestwick Airport . He invited me and my companion and two lady missionaries to have dinner with him and sister McKay at the Glasgow Central Hotel. I had just been appointed District President of Scotland–a position Pres. McKay held fifty years before. He was the essence of courtesy and courtly manners.

2 years old

This was taken when I was about two years old (1933). I am standing in our garden with my back to Janefield Cottage our ancestral home built c. 1880 by my great grandfather, John Reid, Master Mason and “Laird of Stevenston.”

My mass of white curly hair caused people to say I was really Lloyd George, the Welsh radical liberal who was Prime Minister of the UK during World War I. So that explains my liberal tendencies.

If you look closely you will notice I am squinting–I didn’t like bright light. I think my mother had that summer suit made by a local seamstress–Mrs. McColl.

PS I have no memory of ever posing for this picture and by the look on my face I wasn’t very happy having to stand there in the sun.