Richard Buchanan

Railway toolmaker who reformed the Commons library

Richard Buchanan, railwayman and politician: born Glasgow 3 May 1912;. Honorary Treasurer, City of Glasgow 1960-63; President, Scottish Library Association 1963; MP (Labour) for Glasgow Springburn 1964-79; President, Buchanan Society 1989-91; married 1938 Margaret McManus (died 1963; six sons, two daughters), 1971 Helen Duggan; died Glasgow 22 January 2003.

Some of the most important achievements of Members of Parliament are completely unsung. Richard Buchanan was the Chairman of the House of Commons Library Committee during the time of transition from an old-style, gentleman's-club library to the expert modern facility that is at the disposal of Members of Parliament today.

He became a member of the Library Committee months after he was elected, because he had been Chairman of the Libraries and Schools Committee of the Glasgow Education Committee and had established a formidable reputation in driving through the changes that were to make Glasgow an outstanding authority in Britain for the promotion of libraries. David Holland, the former House of Commons Librarian, reports that when Buchanan took over from Sir George Benson, the veteran MP for Chesterfield, he devoted himself assiduously to supporting library staff who recognised the need for change.

Holland's successor, David Menhennet, recalls that Buchanan's particular achievement was to guide the library when it was embarking on computerisation, displacing the manual system which had been deemed adequate for MPs for decades. "He put the library at the forefront of research institutions and was a wonderful support to staff, whose numbers and expertise increased throughout his time."

Dick Buchanan was born in Glasgow in 1912, into a railway family and was brought up in Roman Catholic schools (all his adult life he wore the St Mungo's Academy scarf), maintaining a devout religious faith. He was especially close to Thomas Winning, the late Cardinal Archbishop of Glasgow.

Though he was vehemently against abortion, his equable temperament and good nature made it possible for him to put a point of view without any rancour to those in the 1960s who were campaigning for the abortion laws and the changes which were encapsulated in David Steel's Private Member's Bill. Between 1959 and 1964 he was a governor of Notre Dame College of Education, which nurtured many generations of devoted Catholic teachers.

He was very involved in the National Union of Railwaymen. His mother was widowed when he was 14 and the foreman came to the house to offer condolences. "What can we do for the boy?" he asked. Dick was given an apprenticeship in the Cowlairs (later part of the Caley) workshop, where he became a very skilled toolmaker.

During the Second World War specialist railway engineering was a reserved occupation. But he lost a brother, a sergeant in the Black Watch. Long before Dick Buchanan was an MP, he somehow put together the money to go to Alamein, to stand by his brother's grave.

In 1949 he was elected a Councillor on Glasgow City Council. He served 15 years on the council and a distinguished period, from 1960 to 1963, as Honorary City Treasurer, second only to the Lord Provost. He would turn up from the works in his boilersuit, shave and change into the smart suit of the City Treasurer.

Buchanan was a natural choice as successor to John Forman in the safe Labour citadel of Glasgow Springburn, for which he was elected MP in 1964. Having lost a dearly beloved wife by whom he had eight children the year before he came to Parliament, he had no hesitation in campaigning for cancer research. On 11 March 1965 he asked ministers to consider imposing a compulsory levy on the tobacco companies equivalent to the government grant towards cancer research.

As a former chairman of the Belvedere Hospital in Glasgow and a member of the board of managers of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, his opinions carried considerable weight with his colleagues. But then anything that Dick Buchanan said in his quiet way carried weight, because he was a politician of measured opinions who was reticent about putting himself forward and didn't crave political office but was there to serve the people of Springburn and the people of Glasgow.

However, it was as a working railwayman who could give first-hand experience to the Commons that he really was effective. I remember that one of his particular concerns was the cost of vandalism and within months of coming to the Commons he was asking his friend the Minister of Transport Tom Fraser, MP for Hamilton, about the costs of vandalism and what the Government was really doing to urge the prosecutions.

Vandalism then was nothing like it is now and a special survey showed that the cost of repairing losses in the year 1963 was about £150,000. During 1964, 906 prosecutions were brought and the average fine over 767 cases where this penalty was imposed on conviction was £4 4s. Buchanan, who had considerable experience as a Justice of the Peace, argued that the important thing was not the amount of the fine imposed on wayward boys but the fact that they should come to court and there should be proper follow-up. Juvenile delinquency was one of the topics on which he made authoritative contributions.

In those days before devolution (to which he was strongly opposed), the Scottish Office in Dover House not only had considerable power of the purse but worked hand-in-glove with the local authorities. Buchanan told any of his MP colleagues that they should not meddle in local authority affairs or try to tell local authorities what they should or should not be doing. He believed passionately in the dignity of local councillors, and of course when local authorities had very real powers of their own many men and women of quality were attracted to local government.

He was proud of being a graduate of local government and in a position to help his former colleagues on the many overspill agreements towards achieving a solution to the housing problems of Glasgow and the elbow room that was necessary for development.

Buchanan – proud, too, of his family's Highland origins and a sometime President of the Buchanan Society – had what his friend Denis Healey called a hinterland, and was on the committee of the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and a director of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. It was these artistic interests which perhaps appealed to Jack Diamond, who asked Buchanan to be his Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1967 to 1970. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury at that critical moment Diamond was perhaps the third most important member of the Government after Harold Wilson and Roy Jenkins and Buchanan was at the centre of economic crisis management, keeping as cordial relations as possible with critical parliamentary colleagues.

Let the last word go to his friend, whom Buchanan was delighted to see as his successor at Glasgow Springburn, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin:

He was exceptionally kind to me when I was adopted as a parliamentary candidate. He took no part in the selection conference but as soon as I was selected he promised to be at my side and he kept that promise. He went further. He told many of his parliamentary colleagues to watch out for and look after the young sheet-metal worker from Springburn. It was typically generous.

Tam Dalyell