Dr Alexander Buchanan
Photograph of Dr Alexander Buchanan, Medical Officer for Tiree 1860-1911.
Courtesy of Mr Hugh MacKinnon
In 1860 Dr. Alexander Buchanan, a 25 year old surgeon newly qualified from Edinburgh, was appointed Tiree’s Medical Officer. He was given the tenancy of Baugh farm as a living by the Duke of Argyll.
He married Colina Campbell, daughter of the tenant of Balephetrish farm, and the couple had six children. From a farming background himself, he was no doubt helped in the running of his 160 acre farm by his wife’s family.
Dr Buchanan worked until his death in 1911 aged 75. It was said his patients would feel better at the sound of his oilskins rustling. On his death a monument was erected on Cnoc Eibrig in Baugh to a ‘Medical officer and loved and valued friend of the islanders’.
Black and white photograph of Dr Alexander Buchanan, 1835-1911.
Dr Alexander Buchanan, 1835-1911, Medical Officer for Tiree from 1860 to his death in 1911.