984 Thomas Buchanan

Constituency : Edinburgh  1881-5, Edinburgh  West 1885-92  ( 1886-8  Liberal  Unionist ), Aberdeenshire  East  1892-1900, Perthshire  East  1903-10

Thomas  took  over  at  Edinburgh  when  John  McLaren  resigned  to  become  a  judge.

Thomas  was  a  Glaswegian, educated  at  Sherborne  School  and  Oxford. He  became  a  barrister.  He  stood  for  Haddington  in  1880.

Thomas  went  with  the  Liberal  Unionists  in  1886   but  came  round  to  supporting  Home  Rule  by  1888. He  resigned  his  seat  and  won  it  as  a  Gladstonian  in  the  by-election.  He  was  defeated  in  1892  but  won  a  by-election  in  Aberdeenshire  East  in  1892. He was  defeated  in  1900  and  remained  outside  Parliament  until  1903  when  he  came  back  in  for  Perthshire  East.

Thomas  was  appointed  Financial  Secretary  to  the  War  Office  by  Campbell-Bannerman  in  1905. In  1908  Asquith  made  him  Under  Secretary  of  State  for  India, a  post  he  held  for  just  over  a  year.

Thomas  was  a noted  book  collector.

He  died  in  1911  aged  65.