Hector MacDonald

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Major-General Hector Archibald MacDonald (1852/1853–March 25, 1903) was a distinguished but controversial officer in the British army. He committed suicide, possibly to avoid exposure as a homosexual.

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, he was popular with his men, nicknamed Fighting Mac.

He was the son of a crofter, born at Muir of Allan-Grange in the Black Isle, Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland, in 1852 or 1853. ^{[citation needed]} As a boy he was employed in a drapers shop at Dingwall, but in 1870 he enlisted in the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders (or possibly the Scots Guards). ^{[citation needed]}

He rose rapidly through the noncommissioned ranks, and had already been a color-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 advancenient 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.

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 Toski and in 1891, after the action at Tokar, he was promoted substantive major.

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, manouvering as a unit with the coolness and precision of the parade ground, repulsed the most determined attack of the Mahdists. Kitchener later acclaimed him as "the real hero of Omdurman".

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.

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 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-martialled, facing charges of sodomy with Sri Lankan boys.

He was lauded as a hero, and had a James Scott Skinner tune written in his honor called Hector the Hero. A memorial to him, in the form of a tower 100 ft. high, was erected at Dingwall and completed in 1907.

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.