The Secretary of State for Scotland has appointed Lord Macdonald Chairman of the Electricity Consultative Council for the North of Scotland and a member of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board.
It should be no surprise to learn that in this Space Age the name of Macdonald has a place on the map of the Moon. It was added recently in recognition of the services to astronomy of a Glasgow man, Mr Thomas Logie MacDonald, one-time secretary and chairman of the West of Scotland branch of the British Astronomical Association. A graduate of Glasgow University, Mr MacDonald became Mayor of Carlisle in May 1961. Mount Macdonald is a shallow crater about ten miles across.
Seventeen-year-old Peter Macdonald, of Highfield Road, Scone, won the Scottish Schoolboys’ Foil Championship in 1961. He was captain of the Merchiston Castle School fencing team which won the Thistle Shield presented for competition by the Scottish Fencing Union. He is the son of Mr A. Macdonald, deputy manager and secretary of Gaflac, Perth.
Mr Alistair Macdonald, director of physical education at Queen’s University, Belfast, has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Physical Education. A former pupil of Wick High School, he is the son of the late Mr John Macdonald, blacksmith, Wick. The American Academy honoured him for outstanding services to physical education.
A biography of Ramsay MacDonald is being written by Mr David Marquad, son of the MP for Middlesbrough East, a Manchester journalist. He has appealed to Lossiemouth people to supply personal impressions, anecdotes, letters, anything with a bearing on the private life of the “Lossie loon” who became Prime Minister.
Mr Donald John MacDonald of Penincrine, South Uist, who has been recording folklore material for the School of Scottish Studies, has collected over 6000 pages of material from Penincrine and the neighbouring townships of Stoneybridge, Howbeg and Howmore. The collection includes place-names, customs and beliefs, methods of work, sketches of houses, out-buildings and implements, and over a hundred folk-songs, local legends, tales and lays.
Professor James A. Macdonald was inducted to the Chair of Botany in the University of St Andrews in 1961. He was educated at Inverness Royal Academy and Edinburgh University. Professor Macdonald became lecturer in Botany at St Andrews in 1935 and senior lecturer in 1953.
Barbara McDonald, of Corrie Road, Kinlochieven, a member of the 1st Kinlochleven Girls’ Guildry, won the Queen Elizabeth Brooch, the movement’s supreme award, for her “devotion to her home and family during the past two years during which time her father was ill.”
Father Andrew Macdonell MBE MC OSB died in December 1960 at the age of 90 years. Father Andrew was born in Invergarry and educated at the Abbey School, Fort Augustus. He was ordained in 1896 and was later appointed parish priest of Fort Augustus, Glengarry and Glenmoriston. A tireless worker in the interest of the people and the welfare of the community in his ten years as parish priest, he was instrumental in reviving the game of shinty, securing the first Queen’s District Nurse for Fort Augustus, founding the Gleann Mor Gathering and Highland Games (now a thing of the past) and forming the Fort Augustus Pipe Band of which there is only one surviving member. In 1912 he went to Canada to organise the settlement in Alberta of emigrants from the Highlands and Islands, but in 1914 he enlisted as a padre with the Canadian Highlanders and served in France until 1918. His courage under fire while comforting the wounded earned him the Military Cross. After the war he returned to Canada where his work for the emigrants was recognised by the award of the MBE. He spent his last years at Fort Augustus Abbey.
Skipper Donald MacDonald, his brother John A. MacDonald, and his cousin John MacLeod, of Stornoway, are the owners of the Highland Chieftain, a 66ft. diesel-engined fishing vessel launched in September – the third boat to be built under the Outer Hebridean Fishery Training Scheme which, by training and loans, aims at developing fishing in the islands. The vessel is fitted out for seine-netting and trawling and has all the latest fishing and navigation aids.
Angus MacDonald, a 28-year-old farmer of Conon Brae Farm, Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, travelled from Inverness to London in September as a VIP guest of British Railways. His free trip was a gesture of appreciation for his efforts in averting a train crash. After seeing a motor lorry smashing through a fence on to the main railway line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh near Achnasheen, he drove to Achnashellach Station, collected detonators and placed them on the line in time to stop the morning train from Inverness.
Dr Allan Macdonald and Mrs Macdonald were the recipients of a cheque for £130 when the people of the parishes of Kilmuir and Snizort in Skye met at Uig to mark his retirement after 15 years as medical officer of the district. Major John Macdonald of Tote was the chairman.
A bronze plaque in memory of Pipe-Major George MacDonald was unveiled in the Castle Gardens, Dunoon, before the start of the 1961 Cowal Games. Representatives of the Cowal Highland Gathering Committee, the Scottish Pipe Band Association, and officers and the pipe band of the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders attended the ceremony. As a pipe-major, composer and instructor of bagpipe music, Pipe-Major MacDonald did much to foster the enthusiasm for pipe band contests which exists in Scotland today.
Lt. Col. D.J. Macdonald of Stornoway, who commanded the Ross Mountain Battery for 14 years, died in July. A deputy lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty, he had the distinction of serving in every branch of the Royal Artillery – mountain, field, anti-tank, anti-aircraft and coast defence.
Mr Ian H. Macdonald. For the past 20 years General Manager of the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association, has been appointed Deputy Chairman of Thomson Newspapers Ltd. of Canada.