GENERAL HECTOR MACDONALD

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 852, 28 March 1903, Page 2

GENERAL HECTOR MACDONALD

To command a Highland Brigade on active service is an ambition to realise which a Royal prince might well make substantial sacrifices. It is an incidental proof of the remaining vitality of the much-abused British Army, that this honorable distinction should have been achieved by the son of a small Scottish farmer, who entered the army as a private and rose by sheer merit to the rank of genera! equally powerful tribute to the personality of the man who accomplished this extraordinary feat —that while to all and sundry he was unmistakably Major-General Macdonald, G.C.8., D. 5.0., A.D.0., to the late Queen, he was to a large section of the British Army, and the British public as well, simply “ Old Mac,” or “ Fighting Mac.” He was born in 1852, and joined the Gordon Highlanders at 18. His chance did not come till the Afghan war ot ,187980, jn which he displayed conspicuous’ gallantry. I-le continued a brilliant military career, and “ Fighting Mac,’ as he was known, was ever to the fore, each step in his distinguished career being marked by merit. It was on the lamented death of General Wauchope, at the battle or Magersfontein, lie was appointed that officer’s successor ; subsequent events, culminating in his triumphal tour of this colony, are too fresh in the mind to need recapitulation.