JOHN BUCHAN (1875-1940) born in Perth The son of a Presbyterian minister, Buchan started writing adventure novels while still studying at university. Reading law, he was called to the Bar in 1901 but did not practise as a barrister.
Working in the High Commission in South Africa during the Boer War was the first of Buchan's encounters with the world of espionage, and during the First World War he became Director of Information for the British Government, in the precursor of the
Secret Services.
In all, Buchan wrote 50 books while working full-time and served as an MP from 1927 to 1935 before being appointed Governor-General of Canada. He died of a brain haemorrhage soon after Canada entered the Second World War.
MUNGO PARK (1771-1806) born near Selkirk The seventh of 13 children, Park was a farmer's son who went on to study medicine. After qualifying as a surgeon, Park served as a medical officer in the East India Trade.
He journeyed to Sumatra and studied the plant life there. The African Association then asked him to explore the true course of the unknown River Niger in Gambia. In 1795 he managed to plot over 200 miles of the river, and despite hardships of fever and imprisonment he explored the Upper Senegal Basin and parts of Mali.
Park became famous through writing of his adventures and after a spell practising medicine in Peebles he set of for a second expedition to the Niger. It ended in disaster in 1806 after severe sickness and attacks from natives. Precise details of his death are unknown but he was thought to have drowned while fleeing an assault.
DR WILLIAM SPIERS BRUCE (1867-1921) born in London Born in London to Scottish parents, Bruce served as a ship's surgeon for a Dundee whaling fleet on a pioneering expedition of four ships to the Falkland Islands in 1892.
Scott asked him to take part in his exploration of Antarctica but Bruce refused, preferring to set up his own project. The little-known Scottish National Antarctic Expedition from 1902 to 1904 mapped unknown parts of the continent, did oceanographic surveys of the Weddell Sea and discovered many new species of life.
Bruce travelled to Spitsbergen in Norway seven times after this and also helped set up the Scottish Oceanographic Laboratory in 1907. Later he would manage a whaling outpost in the Seychelles before returning to Britain and dying in 1921. His ashes were scattered in the Southern Ocean.
THOMAS COCHRANE (1775-1860) born in Lanarkshire Cochrane was born into the aristocracy and served in the British navy from 1793 in the Napoleonic Wars. He became an MP in 1806 and in 1809 led an attack on the French Fleet, but his outspoken nature and criticism of an indecisive commander led to him falling foul of his superiors and losing his position.
In 1814 he was accused of trying to make money by rigging the market and was expelled as an MP.
After this he was invited to command the Chilean Navy in its successful war of independence from Spain before carrying out a similar role in Brazil in 1823 and Greece in 1828. After returning home, Cochrane managed to rejoin the navy and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral commanding it in the Americas and West Indies.
He died in London in 1860 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
JOHN MOORE (1761-1809) born in Glasgow Moore was commissioned into the British Navy at 15 and served in the American wars of Independence.
He became an MP in his twenties and in 1798 had risen to the rank of Major-General, becoming a leading player in defeating the French at Aboukir in Egypt.
During the peninsular Wars against Napoleon, Moore commanded the British troops in Portugal, training the British Light Infantry and setting the standard in organisation in the army for years to come. In the retreat from Corunna in Portugal he managed to save the army from total defeat but was killed in the last part of the battle and buried in secret on the battlefield.
A statue of Moore sits in Glasgow's George Square to this day.
