Frederick Buchanan, Harrier

My father is in this picture of the Eglinton Harriers. If we take the three sitting on the floor as row 1, he is sitting on row 2 – extreme right – proud as a peacock, ready to race across the Stevenston sand dunes. I don’t know when he became involved with the Eglinton Harriers, but essentially it was because of the outbreak of Wordl War I.

As you are aware, you can’t wage war without explosives and Alfred Nobel’s Explosives Factory at Ardeer, an area in Stevenston, was gearing up for the conflict. In addition Scottish factories were paying twice the wages Dad was getting in his job at the ship yard in Belfast. At the beginning of 1915 he began work at Ardeer Foundry. He boarded at the home of his Aunt (?) and Uncle (?) Isabel McManus and William Rainey in Ardrossan. It so happened that Willie Rainey was the coach of the Eglinton Harriers.

So I assume that he introduced his young nephew to the manly art of cross country racing and sprinting. He must have joined the club around the Spring of 1915. He won some medals, but on the 7th of March 1917 he was sworn in as an ordinary seamen in the Royal Navy.

MV Eucadia

My father was never very keen on leaving Scotland, but when he decided to go to Utah he made it a condition that we would sail directly from Glasgow rather than travel the length of England and sail from Southampton. Dad was Irish to the core and had the typical Irish bias against the Sassenach.

We made travel arrangements through Mr. Alexander Millar of Saltcoats and were scheduled to leave Glasgow on a brand and new cargo/passenger ship, the MV Eucadia of the Anchor Line, an old Scottish shipping company. The Eucadia had 6 first class cabins on each side. On the 18th of June 1949 we paid for our transportation from Glaagow to Salt Lake City–! £165 for the sea voyage and £54 for the railroad fare–the total cost of tranporting the three of us came to approximately $725 US Dollars. Originally scheduled to leave Glasgow on July 2nd, the sailing date was postponed for three days. I think we arrived in New York on the 13th of July.

On the morning of July 5th we walked the few blocks from Aunt Jean’s home on Mooorark West to the Stevenston station, each of us carrying a brown cardboard suitcase containing all of our personal clothing etc. We said final goodbyes to a few neighbours and kinfolk and as the train sped past places whiere we had worked and played we all realized that this was not a holiday jaunt we were going on. Dad wept like a child as his happy hunting grounds (the Stevenston Marshes) vanished in the distance. For me I was as happy any teenager would be when faced with the greatest adventure in his life. A new chapter of my life was opening before me and I knew that my life would be forever changed by the decision I had made to leave my native land and gather in the place I believed was Zion. For years we had sung with vigor the hymn “Ye Elders of Israel.” Now we could sing the chorus with conviction: "Oh Babylon, Oh Babylon, we bid you, farewell; We’re going to the mountains of Ephraim to dwell.”


This picture of the MV Eucadia was taken, September of 1953 from the deck of the S.S. United States as I was returning from my mission to Great Britain.

Liz Buchanan with Rabbits (and Fred)

Taken around 1939, my mother displays a brace of rabbits which dad had just brought in. In a few minutes she'll have them skinned, cut up and put into a large soup pot with a variety of vegetables – carrots, turnip, celery, parsley and tatties.

My mother was a very hard worker and could set a table fit for a king. Her brother John registered her for school and made her one year older than she really was. That was so she would be able to get home and start work instead of attending school. She was a housekeeper as well as a personal maid. She served in a home in Saltcoats when she was a teen.

Frederick Buchanan, Hunter

This is 32 year old Frederick Buchanan – hunter par excellence – standing by Stevenston Burn on Stinston Mair (Stevenston Moor) in the fall of 1929. His game bag was an important source of protein for his growing family during the “Great Depression.” He bagged 13 ducks on the day before I was born. Note the shine on his boots. He loved to take the missionaries hunting. Elder William Tolman took this picture. Fred’s game included hares, rabbits, curlews, lapwings, snipe, golden plovers and one “Royal” swan – which he bagged for the Stevenston Socialist Party's Christmas dinner – around 1930. Shsh – it was technically a crime, but so was the “Great Depression.” Dad was out of work for 8 years!

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.

Freddie BUCKANAN

So, you want to know what’s behind the photo of wee Freddie BUCKANAN? Well, good luck—I’ve been trying to figure that out myself these 70 odd years but I’ll try again.

I’m standing on the door step of #5 George Place, Stevenston. The step is worn down from the feet of the Hamiltons, Claspers, Reids and Buchanans who have passed this way. We didn’t have a camera so I think this photo was taken by Alex Leslie—who at this time, (1937-38) was courting my sister Betty. One way of impressing the family was to lavish lots of attention on the wee brither vis-a-vis the camera.

I’m rather dressed up so I must be going somewhere—I’m wearing shoes and long woolen socks instead of my usual bare feet. My coat seems to match my breeks and I’m wearing a white shirt under a sweater—snazzy, don’t you think? Look at my cow’s lick— Betty probably fixed my hair that way. Perhaps I was going to Largs to visit my grand mother—or maybe I was going to Glasgow to visit Brother and Sister McGowan—fellow LDS members. Perhaps I was just “all dressed up with nowhere to go.” I turned 7 in 1938 so maybe I was in formal wear for my solitary birthday party. That’s enough about my reasons for standing on the step of oor wee “but an’ ben .”

If you could magnify my knees you’d see many a scar from falling while running. Betty was continually scrubbing and bandaging my knees to prevent them from getting infected. Notice my right eye—it’s a “lazy eye” condition which I still have—one eyelid is lower than the other. Note the large ears which I was very conscious of. I was teased by school mates who nicknamed me “elephant ears” or "Jumbo.”

Behind me you will see a paneled door—this separated our lobby from the “living/bed/kitchen/dining room.” The door to my right was the entrance to “the room,” where Bill slept and where I was born.

That’s about as much detail as I can conjure up about the meaning of this photograph. Alex must have taken it because it is perfectly centered—indeed, if I were to lift up my arms and spread out my legs I could become a junior version of Leonardo’s perfect human!!!!! ho ho ho.

Cheerio the noo.