Russell Buchanan came from a medical family, being the younger son of James S Buchanan, an honorary surgeon at the Alfred Hospital, and Alfreda Gamble, who was one of the first women medical graduates from the University of Melbourne, and one of the co-founders of the Queen Victoria Hospital. His formal schooling was undertaken at Scotch College, East Melbourne, at the end of which time he was awarded a senior government scholarship. He entered Ormond College, and in 1926, was reported debating the benefits of private versus nationalised medicine, an issue which is still relevant 60 years later. In his medical course, he gained honours in all subjects throughout the course and graduated top of his year in 1927. After his residency at the Alfred Hospital, he passed his MD in 1930, and travelled to London where in the following year he gained his MRCP. He worked in several hospitals studying cardiology, and it was some time during this period that he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, an illness which was to modify his subsequent career.
He returned to Melbourne in 1933, and was appointed an outpatient physician at the Alfred Hospital in 1935, a post he held until 1946. During the intervening years, he had several periods of absence due to ill health, and was consequently not re-appointed to this position after the war. During the war he served within Australia in the Australian Army Medical Corps, in which he achieved the rank of major.
From 1939 to 1962, Russell held an appointment as honorary physician at the Austin Hospital. As a representative of the medical staff, he was active on several committees within the hospital, particularly in the post-war period. He is remembered as a quietly spoken, thoughtful but confident man who was liked by all with whom he worked. His patients remember him with great affection and felt they never called on him in vain, and it was said that the children actually looked forward to the day of his ward round. His colleagues sought and valued his carefully considered opinions, and his former students comment that he was an excellent teacher and always considerate of their needs.
He was a quiet man who did not make friends easily; however those who did get to know him well knew him as a warm and generous person. He married Joan Cameron and they had three sons. He always hoped that the family interest in medicine might be continued and would have been proud of the support given to the children by his wife following his premature death. Andrew (FRACP) is now a paediatrician in Adelaide while Malcolm (FRCPA), a pathologist, and Russell (FRACP), a rheumatologist, both live in Melbourne.