Major General Sir Hector MacDonald - Fighting Mac

on the 25th of march 1903 a single shot rang out in room 105 at the hotel regina in paris when alarm staff entered the room they found a 50 year old lying dead with a gunshot wound to his head he was a brave talented british army officer the son of a humble crofter who'd enlisted in the army and had risen from the very bottom to become a major general in the class-ridden victorian army and yet it is all ended here in humiliation a whiff of conspiracy and above all sadness i've wanted to tell this story for some time and i'm really grateful to all of you who've requested it this is the inspiring and sad story of major general sir hector macdonald fighting mac hector alter mcdonald was born in march 1853 not far from ding wall in roshia in the very far north east of scotland his father william was a crofter and also a stonemason or what they'd call a dry diker someone who constructed stone walls for farms and for houses during his itinerant travels as a dry diker that william met and boyed they married and now was to give birth to five boys the youngest of whom was hector dingwall and the surrounding remote areas of scotland were gaelic speaking and the crafters like the macdonald family were survivors from the highland clearances which was you know was still within living memory young hector helped at the croft with his family and then helped his family earn much needed cash by working for the junior bailey a sort of a local government officer at dingball mr robertson once robertson returned home to find young hector mounted on his pony galloping around the field wielding a fork like a sword and giving orders to an imaginary army it seems that hector macdonald had a military calling from a very young age despite that when he was 15 he was apprenticed to a draper in dingwall the military would have to wait but not for long in 1879 went three days after his 17th birthday young hector joined the invention highland rifle volunteers and a year later lying about his age and walking out on his five-year five-year apprenticeship contract he signed on as a full-time soldier with the 92nd regiment of foot the gordon highlanders the 92nd had an illustrious fighting record where they famously joined the charge of the scots greys at the battle waterloo these fiery fighting highlanders were so keen to get at napoleon's troops they actually hung onto the stirrups of the scots greys as they charged into the enemy within two years before he was even 20 mcdonald had been promoted to sergeant his commanding officer called him into his office to inform him of the promotion and told him in no uncertain terms that a sergeant in an illustrious regiment like the 92nd to the gordon's was in his opinion equivalent to being a member of the british parliament mcdonald's swiftly moved upwards becoming one of the youngest color sergeants in the british army at the time in december 1878 the 26 year old color sergeant and the rest of the 92nd were dispatched to afghanistan during the second anglo-afghan war on the 28th of september 1879 mcdonald played a key role in leaving leading his highlanders along with a detachment of sikh soldiers from india up a steep slope scattering 2 000 afghan soldiers outside the fort at karataga a relatively minor action in the overall war the british commander in afghanistan general frederick roberts mentioned mcdonald in dispatches it was the first of 11 occasions that hector mcdonald will be mentioned in dispatches during his military career a few days later macdonald once again it distinguished himself at the battle of chariceab where one of the 92's officers major george white was awarded the victoria cross this is the same george white who as a major general commanded the besieged garrison at ladysmith during the boer war more importantly for our story general roberts also offered colour sergeant mcdonald the choice of a victoria cross or an officer's commission and mcdonald chose the latter and so this crofter's son rose from the ranks into the officer class that was dominated by sons of aristocrats but the majority of whom had simply purchased their commissions mcdonald now a subulton and the rest of the 92nd joined roberts as he marched his army 310 miles in 20 days across the afghan terrain from kabul to defeat the afghans decisively at kandahar in 1880 a year later mcdonald and the 92nd now found themselves in the battle of majuba in south africa during the first war war three companies of the 92nd soon to be renamed the gordon highlanders along with two companies the 58th regiment of foot later the northamptons with whom my dad served were ordered by the general sir george coley to seize the steep hill of majuba in natal mcdonald climbed the hill he established a position for his highlanders on the west side of the summit of majuba the boers however stormed the mountain and despite fierce resistance not least from the gordons the british were driven off the top of the hill losing just under 300 men killed wounded or captured among those captured was mcdonald the officer from the ranks had fought so ferociously that a highly impressed boy general pete juber actually returned mcdonald's saw to him afterwards and shortly thereafter mcdonald was released from captivity by 1885 he was once again in africa joining the british officered egyptian army and participating in the unsuccessful efforts to rescue general charles gordon in khartoum rising to the rank of captain he was chosen to forge sudanese recruits from the mahdi's regime into a fighting force within the egyptian army within a year the soldiers soldier was once again leading troops into combat this time at the battle of toski where the egyptian army along with their sudanese sudanese recruits devastated an invading army from the islamic state of sudan with an amazing track record already mcdonald's real fame was to arrive with kitchener's invasion of sudan in the late 1890s his well-disciplined well-trained african troops performed admirally alongside regular british soldiers at the battles of muhammad and at athbara as they cleared away towards the caliphate capital of omdaman on the banks of the river nile the british press found in the no-nonsense common soldier from the highlands a hero for their readers and swiftly macdonald was dubbed fighting mac the final showdown with the uh the mahdi's successor the khalifa's sudanese army occurred outside their capital at onderman on the 2nd of september 1898. the islamic army swept across the plain towards kitchener's positions in a withering barrage of artillery and rifle fire they almost ceased to exist after a brief pause in which kitchener decided that he had given his enemy quote a good or dusting kitchener resumed his advance on the capital at amdaman with his british units in the vanguard followed by egyptians and in the rear macdonald's sort of sudanese egyptian command mcdonald was slightly to the right of this advancing army meaning that any attacker in the hills alongside them would leave his men highly exposed and the attack did indeed come the black flag division of the khalifa's giant army swept onto the plain towards kitchener's marching column meanwhile macdonald out on the field at the at the end brought his uh three battalions at the sudanese troops the sudanese 9th 10th and 11th at right angles to the advancing black flag creating a crossfire he left his battalion of egyptians facing the carrera hills just in case there was another attack coming from another direction so he sort of formed an inverted l kitchener turned his army out of the march to meet the new threat and with mcdonald's command positioned at right angles they created a devastating crossfire destroying the brave but lightly armed sudanese army as mcdonald watched the remnants of the black flower column streaming back towards andaman another huge force the green flag column came out from those carreray hills straight towards the rear of mcdonald's isolated position only his egyptian battalion was facing them it was now that hector mcdonald came into his own the nearest sudanese battalion pivoted for and turned completely to come alongside their egyptian comrades and mcdonald swiftly brought the other two basalians alongside them this parade-like maneuver conducted in the midst of a battle was pulled off just in the nick of time with his whole brigade firing as rapidly as their martini henry rifles would allow they managed to stop the green flag advance just 300 yards from their line when the smoke cleared mcdonald's men had each fired off 60 rounds and some of them only had two rounds left in their pouches despite the closeness of the attack mcdonald's sudanese command had performed their desperate maneuver with no hint of panic the correspondent from the daily mail wrote quote beneath that strong square hewn face you tell the brain is working as if packed in ice he sat solid on his horse and bent his brow towards the green flag he saw everything knew what to do knew how to do it did it all saw him and knew they were being nursed to triumph a young cavalry officer present that day winston churchill was among many who believe that macdonald and his sudanese troops were the real heroes of the battle of wondermen and not general kitchener the overall commander mcdonald returned to britain a hero especially in his native scotland civic receptions were held in his honour including at edinburgh city council bans greeted him with handel's great anthem see the conquering hero comes enthusiastic crowds gather to cheer one of their own in the town of invergordon men pulled his carriage through the streets as a mark of respect and in the far north banners written in gaelic welcomed their hero home down in london he was enthusiastically mentioned in debates in both the house of commons and the house of lords in parliament after a brief spell in india where the gaelic and english-speaking macdonald seemed to have developed a skill for actually learning local languages he was off to the last great war of queen victoria's reign the second boer war in south africa the british commander in south africa lord roberts who had propelled mcdonald's career all those years ago in afghanistan gave the 46 year old command of the highland brigade with the local rank of major general restoring their morale after the mauling that they had received during black week the highland brigade under their highland warrior were to play a key role in the capture of general prince lou and 4000 war fighters at in the orange free state by now roberts had departed and the new commander-in-chief in south africa was mcdonald's commander at onderman herbert kitchener despite the fact that there was still a war ongoing in south africa with the guerrilla campaign by the boers kitchener seemed less than keen to have mcdonald around on the scene and he was posted to india many believe that a jealous kitchener had never forgiven mcdonald for stealing some of the limelight from his victory at onderman and that could be true even after the battle of wondermen there were comments in the press showing surprise that fighting mack had not received the honours that other officers had gained there was another possible motive and we'll come back to that in a short while knighted for his services sir hector mcdonald was now appointed as an aide to camp or military secretary to queen victoria herself not bad for a gaelic speaking son of a crofter he had hoped his next appointment would be the commander in chief in australia but instead he was given command of the british troops in the colony of ceylon modern-day sri lanka there this no-nonsense son of a crofter fell foul of the colonial elite he instilled a level of discipline into the local militia which the sons of colonists irked they wanted to play soldiers not really bee soldiers he shunned invitations to attend white colonial functions preferring to spend time with singer lee's locals and once he famously shouted at the governor of the colony sir joseph west ridgeway to get off his parade ground all endearing to common soldiers and probably to our 21st century society but at the time a great way to alienate yourself from the powers that be rumors started to circulate within the upper class colonial society the mcdonalds seem to be taking a rather too keen interest in some young boys and patronising a club with seemingly dubious morals this whispering campaign reached a climax when a teague a colonial tea planter told governor ridgway that he had surprised major general mcdonald in a railway carriage in a rather compromising position with four local sinalese boys and suddenly an avalanche of rumors descended on the governor he confronted mcdonald with his accusations and said that he had over 70 witnesses to mcdonald's behavior interestingly whilst homosexuality was illegal in britain and oscar wilde would famously be sent to prison only a few years earlier it wasn't actually a crime in ceylon nevertheless ridgeway suggested to mcdonald that he returned to britain for a cooling off period upon his return to london he met his old mentor field marshal lord roberts now commander-in-chief of all british forces and roberts advised mcdonald to return to ceylon and fate face court martial to clear his name the new king edward vii supposedly told him to put a gun to his head rather than face the shame of a military career ruined by a proven homosexual conduct mcdonald decided to return to ceylon on route via paris he checked into the hotel regina on the morning of the 25th of march 1903 in room 105 major general sir hector mcdonald hero at the battle of honduran shot himself through the head he was just 50 years old when his body was discovered a copy of the new york tribune lay close by with a lurid story about his time in ceylon were the stories true i mean maybe they were just vicious rumors peddled by people who disliked a commoner arriving in the rarefied atmosphere of the victorian upper classes and that is a certainly a neat story you know british victorian british toffs hound a talented commoner to his death within just a few years in fact a member a member of parliament for his home constituency ross and cromity scotland a man called james galloway weir was claiming that mcdonald had been quote driven to his doom by society clique equally maybe mcdonald was a homosexual some have argued that the reason that kitchener had him removed from south africa had less to do with jealousy over ondaman and more because he'd been told that mcdonald had formed an attachment with a young boy prisoner whether there was an elitist conspiracy or whether mcdonald was a homosexual scotland was sent into a state of shock and grief at the loss of their hero when the british authorities suggested he'd be buried in paris there was an outcry in scotland bring our son home and so he was it was now that another secret emerged from mcdonald's life hector mcdonald had been married for 16 years back in 1886 while stationed at tettenberg castle he had married christina mcdonald duncan who was 15 years his junior since that date they'd actually only met four times no one no really knows what was going on with this marriage neither christina nor hector actually arrived to register their marriage in the official records in edinburgh and the register itself notes that their details were inserted by the registrar himself christina had borne him a son herbert two years after their marriage so was it a marriage of convenience or was it a mistake we really don't know but now after all these years christina stepped in to organize a very private funeral at dean cemetery in edinburgh despite the fact that hector mcdonald was not given a hero's funeral the people of scotland gave him a hero's send-off over thirty thousand lined the route to the cemetery for this private funeral and over the following three days over ninety thousand scots men women and children filed past his grave forming a cue three miles long as i said earlier i've wanted to tell the story of hector mcdonald fighting mack for some time and i'm really grateful to all of you who've written to me requesting that i do so men rising from the ranks to become officers is not uncommon in the british army but even now it's not an everyday occurrence for it to happen in class-ridden victorian society was even more remarkable there were others color sergeant-born from rorke's drift is a good example the fact that hector mcdonald made it all the way to major general makes him one of a very elite group of men but the fact that he came from the lowliest of backgrounds to accomplish to accomplish this achievement he's not just impressive it's actually quite inspiring mentioned 11 times in dispatches his battle honours are quite frankly unlike a commentary of the british army in the 19th century but there is that other story too a story of petty jealousies of senior officers like kitchener and from an establishment who disliked an outsider and would do anything to bring him down and i'm sure that makes many of you even to think about it quite angry but maybe the story is actually a lot sadder than that it's a story of a brave talented soldier who paid the price for genuinely being gay in a world where homosexuality was frowned upon where at the end of the day it could shame a brave hero into taking his own life in a paris hotel room mcdonald's story is not told enough but if you seek it you will find that his legend and his name lives on there are two memorials close to his hometown in dingwall including a a baronial sort of style tower that stands 100 feet high but you don't have to go to the northeast of scotland to see his memorials just pop down to your local supermarket certainly here in the uk look in the coffee section and you'll see invariably see camp coffee essence with its 19th century looking label of a highland officer enjoying a cup of coffee in colonial india marketing legend says that officer was modeled on major general sir hector mcdonald fighting mac well thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed that loads more videos coming your way very soon so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any of them and until next time keep well and i'll see you very soon foreign

Channel: The History Chap

Views: 92,895

Keywords: british history, the history chap, military history, major-general sir hector macdonald, major general sir hector macdonald, major general hector macdonald, sir hector macdonald, hector the hero, hector macdonald, hector macdonald truth, fighting mac, hector macdonald fighting mac, general hector macdonald, scotland, the highland brigade, the gordon highlanders, promoted from the ranks, the battle of omdurman sudan 1898, the battle of toski, british army, scottish heroes

Id: Sx178vz8p7U

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2022