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Major-General Hector Archibald MacDonald (April 13, 1853–March 25, 1903) was a distinguished officer in the British army. He committed suicide after being accused of homosexuality. File links The following pages link to this file: Hector Naismith MacDonald ...
The Black Isle (Scottish Gaelic: an t-Eilean Dubh) is an eastern area of Ross and Cromarty. ...
This article is about the country. ...
City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ...
Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. ...
The Highland Brigade is a historical unit of the British Army, which has been formed a number of times. ...
// It was not until 1826 that the energetic Dost Mohammad was able to exert sufficient control over his brothers to take over the throne in Kabul, where he proclaimed himself amir. ...
The First Boer War (Dutch: Eerste Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally First Freedom War) also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, it was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881. ...
Combatants United Kingdom Egypt Italy(only in Sudanese Invasion of Italian Eritrea) Belgium (only in Sudanese invasion of Belgian Equatorial Africa) Mahdist Sudan Strength 25,800 troops 60,000 troops Casualties 700 killed and wounded Anglo-Egyptians, Unknown number of Belgian-Italians 30,000 killed, wounded and captured The Mahdist...
Combatants British Empire Orange Free State South African Republic Commanders Sir Redvers Buller Lord Kitchener Lord Roberts Paul Kruger Louis Botha Koos de la Rey Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Casualties 6,000 - 7,000 (A further ~14,000 from disease) 6,000 - 8,000 (Unknown number from disease) Civilians...
Badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) Ribbon of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on May 18, 1725. ...
DSO medal The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. ...
Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. ...
is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
is the 84th day of the year (85th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...
The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...
Mayor of Leipzig, Germany, committed suicide along with his wife and daughter on April 20, 1945. ...
Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ...
Unlike most British generals of the time, he came from a humble background, and worked his way up from the ranks. Also unlike many generals[citation needed], he was popular with his men, nicknamed Fighting Mac.
Hector Macdonald was born on a farm at Rootfield, near Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland. His father William Macdonald was a crofter and a stonemason. His mother was Ann Boyd, the daughter of John Boyd of Killiechoilum and Cradlehall, near Inverness. Hector's brothers were the Rev. William Macdonald Jr., known as 'Preaching Mac', Donald, John, and Ewen. At the age of 15 Macdonald took his first job as apprenticed to a draper in Dingwall and then to move on to the Royal Clan Tartan and Tweed Warehouse in Inverness, an establishment owned by a Mr. William Mackay. In 1870 Hector Macdonald joined the Gordon Highlanders. See Dingwall (name) for the Scottish family name. ...
Ross-shire (Siorrachd Rois in Gaelic), or simply Ross, is a traditional county of Scotland bordering on Sutherland, Cromartyshire (of which it contains many enclaves), Inverness-shire and on an exclave of Nairnshire. ...
In Scotland a croft is a small parcel of agricultural land that is occupied and farmed by a crofter who pays rent to the landlord who owns the land. ...
, Inverness (Scottish Gaelic: ) is a city[2] in northern Scotland. ...
The Gordon Highlanders was a British Army infantry regiment from 1881 until 1994. ...
He rose rapidly through the noncommissioned ranks, and had already been a Colour Sergeant for some years when, in the Afghan War of 1879, he distinguished himself in the presence of the enemy so much as to be promoted to commissioned rank, his advancement being equally acceptable to his brother officers and popular with the rank and file. As a subaltern he served in the First Boer War of 1880–81, and at Battle of Majuba Hill, where he was made prisoner, his bravery was so conspicuous that General Joubert gave him back his sword. Colour Sergeant (CSgt or C/Sgt) is an non-commissioned rank in the Royal Marines, ranking above Sergeant and below Warrant Officer Class 2. ...
A series of three wars between Britain and the Afghans in the 19th century and early 20th century was formerly called the Afghan Wars but is now referred to as the Anglo-Afghan wars perhaps to distinguish them from the civil strife in the 1980s. ...
The First Boer War (Dutch: Eerste Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally First Freedom War) also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, it was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881. ...
The skirmish at Majuba Hill (near Volksrust, South Africa) on 27 February 1881 was a convincing victory for the Boers. ...
Petrus Jacobus Joubert Petrus Jacobus Joubert (January 20, 1834 - March 28, 1900), better known as Piet Joubert was Commandant-General of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. ...
In 1885 he served under Sir Evelyn Wood in the reorganization of the Egyptian army, and he took part in the Nile Expedition of that year. In 1888 he became a regimental captain in the British service, but continued to serve in the Egyptian army, being particularly occupied with the training of the Sudanese battalions. In 1889 he received the DSO for his conduct at the Battle of Toski and in 1891, after the action at Tokar, he was promoted substantive major. Photo submitted by Marion Hebblethwaite. ...
The Nile Expedition was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. ...
DSO medal The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. ...
Combatants United Kingdom Egypt Mahdist Sudan Commanders Francis Grenfell Wad el Nujumi†Strength 6,000 Casualties Light 1,200 dead, 4,000 captured The battle of Toski(Tushkah) took place in Egypt between the Anglo-Egyptian forces and the Mahdist Sudanese. ...
In 1896 he commanded a brigade of the Egyptian army in the Dongola Expedition, and during the following campaigns he distinguished himself in every engagement, above all in the final Battle of Omdurman (1898) at the crisis of which Macdonald's Sudanese brigade, manoeuvering as a unit with the coolness and precision of the parade ground, repulsed the most determined attack of the Mahdists. His actions were witnessed and later reported by Winston Churchill, and Kitchener later acclaimed Macdonald as "the real hero of Omdurman". Combatants United Kingdom Egypt Mahdist Sudan Commanders Horatio Kitchener Abdullah al-Taashi Strength 8,200 British, 17,600 Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers 52,000 warriors Casualties 48 dead 434 wounded 9,700 killed 13,000 wounded 5,000 captured At the Battle of Omdurman (September 2, 1898) an army commanded...
Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah (1844 - June 22, 1885) was a Muslim religious leader, a faqir, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. ...
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. ...
The Earl Kitchener The Right Honourable Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC (24 June 1850–5 June 1916) was a British Field Marshal, diplomat and statesman. ...
After this great service Macdonald's name became famous in Britain, the popular sobriquet of "Fighting Mac" testifying the interest aroused in the public mind by his career and his soldierly personality. He was promoted colonel in the army and appointed an aide-de-camp to the queen, and in 1899 he was promoted major-general and appointed to a command in India. An aide-de-camp (French: camp assistant) is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state. ...
In December 1899, during the Second Boer War, he was called to South Africa to command the Highland Brigade, which had just suffered very heavily and had lost its commander, Major-General A. G. Wauchope, in the Battle of Magersfontein. He commanded the brigade throughout Lord Roberts' Paardeberg, Bloemfontein and Pretoria operations, and in 1901 he was made a KCB. Combatants British Empire Orange Free State South African Republic Commanders Sir Redvers Buller Lord Kitchener Lord Roberts Paul Kruger Louis Botha Koos de la Rey Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Casualties 6,000 - 7,000 (A further ~14,000 from disease) 6,000 - 8,000 (Unknown number from disease) Civilians...
Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders Lord Methuen Piet Cronje Strength 13,000 8,500 Casualties Nearly 1,000 70 dead 250 wounded Unknown captured and deserted, but believed to be significant {{{notes}}} The Battle of Magersfontein was fought on December 11, 1899 at Magersfontein, on the borders of Cape Colony...
Combatants The British Empire Transvaal Republic Orange Free State Commanders Field Marshal Roberts General Kitchener Sir John French Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly-Kenny Piet Cronje Christiaan De Wet Strength 15,000 men 5,000 men Casualties 258 dead 1,211 wounded 86 captured 100 dead 250 wounded 4,096 captured...
Bloemfontein at night Bloemfontein (IPA: , Afrikaans and Dutch for fountain of Bloem (bloom) or flower fountain is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa. ...
Motto: Praestantia Praevaleat Pretoria (May Pretoria Be Pre-eminent In Excellence) Country South Africa Province Gauteng Established 1855 Area - City 1,644 km² (634. ...
Military Badge of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. ...
In 1902 he was appointed to command the troops in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) but early in the following year he committed suicide by shooting himself with his pistol in Paris. Controversy surrounds this, but it now seems that the most likely explanation is that he was about to be court-martial at the instigation of the governor, Sir Joseph West Ridgeway, facing charges of sodomy with Sri Lankan boys. There were suspicions that the allegations were fabricated by MacDonald's enemies. He was despised by some of the military establishment, who considered themselves of a superior class and looked down on MacDonald's thick Scottish accent and 'uncultured' ways. Before any trial, the allegations were raised publicly in the International Herald Tribune newspaper and MacDonald shot himself in a Paris hotel room. After he died, it emerged that he was married (the marriage took place in 1884) and had a son, Hector Duncan MacDonald, born 1887. His wife, Lady Christina MacLouchan Duncan, came to Paris to claim Hector's body, much to the shock of the British government. Kitchener had always been against his subordinates marrying as he believed that this distracted them from their military duties. Hector had evidently ignored this ruling and married secretly. City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ...
A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ...
Sir Joseph West Ridgeway a British political figure around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. ...
François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le pot pourri de Loth (1781). ...
He was lauded as a hero, and had a James Scott Skinner tune written in his honor called Hector the Hero. His funeral was held in secret at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. But 30,000 people turned up to pay their last respects. In the weeks following, thousands of people from all over the world came to say farewell to Hector Macdonald. James Scott Skinner was born in Banchory, near Aberdeen on August 5, 1843. ...
Hector the Hero is a classic lament penned by Scottish composer and fiddler James Scott Skinner in 1903. ...
Despite his marriage (to a girl barely 16 years old) MacDonald seems to have cultivated loving relations with boys. During his African campaign, his principal friend was Alaister Robertson, a Glenalmond schoolboy from Aberdeen whose photograph he kept on his desk. These interests were his undoing in Ceylon, where he kept company with the two sons of the noted de Saran family, with whom it was suspected he had a sexual relationship, as well as with the son of Governor Ridgeway, whom, it was widely believed, he had also seduced.[1][2]
However, a Government Commission, which sat in Government Buildings, Colombo, Ceylon, released a report on the Macdonald tragedy on the 29th June 1903. The report stated that:
"In reference to the grave charges made against the late Sir Hector Macdonald, we, the appointed and undersigned Commissioners, individually and collectively declare on oath that, after the most careful, minute, and exhaustive inquiry and investigation of the whole circumstances and facts connected with the sudden and unexpected death of the late Sir Hector Macdonald, unanimously and unmistakably find absolutely no reason or crime whatsoever which would create feelings such as would determine suicide, in preference to conviction of any crime affecting the moral and irreproachable character of so brave, so fearless, so glorious and unparalleled a hero: and we firmly believe the cause which gave rise to the inhuman and cruel suggestions of crime were prompted through vulgar feelings of spite and jealousy in his rising to such a high rank of distinction in the British Army: and, while we have taken the most reliable and trustworthy evidence from every accessible and conceivable source, have without hesitation come to the conclusion that there is not visible the slightest particle of truth in foundation of any crime, and we find the late Sir Hector Macdonald has been cruelly assassinated by vile and slandering tongues. While honourably acquitting the late Sir Hector Macdonald of any charge whatsoever, we cannot but deplore the sad circumstances of the case that have fallen so disastrously on One whom we have found innocent of any crime attributed to him".
Lady Macdonald (Christina Duncan) died in 1911. Hector's son went on to become a Engineer and died in 1951.
A memorial to Hector MacDonald was erected at Dingwall and completed in 1907, being 100ft high. See Dingwall (name) for the Scottish family name. ...
A Commission's Findings into MacDonald's suicide in 1903 stated: "the INHUMAN and CRUEL suggestions of crime were prompted through vulgar feelings of SPITE and JEALOUSY in his rising to such a high rank of distinction in the British army".
For some years after his death there were rumours among his old soldiers that he was still alive, and even that the German General August von Mackensen was really him, but there is no truth in this. Field Marshal August von Mackensen August von Mackensen (December 6, 1849–November 8, 1945), was a German Field Marshal, born August Mackensen in Haus Leipnitz, in the Prussian province of Saxony, to Louis and Marie Louise Mackensen. ...
External link
Reference Trevor Royle Fighting Mac - ^ Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present; Dennis Judd, pp171-172
- ^ Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience, Ronald Hyam; pp.34-35
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