THE MYSTERY OF BRITISH GENERAL WHO VANISHED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22887, 5 March 1949, Page 5

THE MYSTERY OF BRITISH GENERAL WHO VANISHED

Is a distinguished British general recorded as having committed suicide 45 years ago in fact still alive in the South of France? writes Mark Priestley in the Sydney Sunday Herald.

* Along a promenade in the south of France, an old, old man moves slowly in a mechanical bath-chair. His eyes twinkle brightly in the sunshine; and he gazes with a curiously satirical expression at the passing crowd. In spite of his age, he is certainly very much alive. Yes, some folk swear he is Sir Hector Macdonald, K.C.8., D. 5.0., who committed suicide exactly 45 years ago. The genera], who refused the V.C. to take a commission, was as famous in his day as Eisenhower or Montgomery. Born in poverty, enlisting when only 18 in the Gordon Highlanders, fighting his way to the very top of the military tree, he was once the most glamorous figure in the British Army. “Fighting' Mac” Taken prisoner by the Boers, he had his sword returned to him because of his bravery. Fighting at Majuba, lss sword broke in two. He flung it away and felled the enemy with his fists. His audacious exploits in a dozen campaigns gained him the sobriquet of "Fighting Mac.” Could this great hero be weak enough in private life to shoot himself rather than face a scandal? On that question hangs one of the most baffling riddles of the century, a riddle which may never be answered. One March day in 1908 Sir Hector booked a hotel room in Paris, He dined alone; frigidly rejected all attempts at conversation, and spent the greater . part of the day locked in his room. Then one morning he came down to breakfast, genial and good-humoured. Walking into the smoking-room after breakfast, he picked up the latest newspaper, and settled himself in an armchair. The next instant, he gave a loud exclamation, flung down the paper, brushed past a flabbergasted waiter who stood in the doorway, went straight to his room—and shot himself. Then began a serids of strange events which have made men wonder whether the "shooting” was all it appeared to be. Questions in Parliament On the front page of the newspaper Sir Hector had been reading that morning was a large photograph of himself—with a brief news item which stated that questions had been asked in the Legislative Council of Ceylon, and that the Governor had said: “It is known to all here that very gravfe charges have been made against Sir Hector Macdonald. He has decided to return to Ceylon to meet the charges” Nothing more. There was no inquest. Two French doctors issued a report certifying the cause of death as “Suicide from mental trouble.” In the early morning, before most city workers were astir, Sir Hector returned to London. He came back in a packing case marked “H.A.M.” Before dawn, one bleak Scottish morning. Sir Hector was buried in an Edinburgh cemetery. No flag draped the coffin, not a single military man was present. In Fleet Street, reporters revealed that there had been attempts on the part of unkown agencies to “keep it dark.” Twenty letters had been delivered to Sir Hector on the morning of his death. They had not been passed on to his relatives. They had not been found. Moreover, on being questioned by reporters, the chambermaid declared that she hadn’t even seen the body of Sir Hector. All she had seen through the partly opened door had been a revolver lying on the floor. She had rushed for the manager . . . Suicide a Fake? Soon the rumour spread that the great soldier was not dead. His suicide, it was whispered, had been a carefully staged fake. Fearful lest his secret should leak out, the Government had covered his tracks and -ordered him to spend the rest of his life in a foreign land. Was it coincidence that a year or two later a Cossack general rose to swift fame in the war between Japan and Russia? He was of the same height as Sir Hector, with the same high cheek bones and keen eyes—in fact, his living double. That Cossack general vanished as strangely as he came. But there was a Field-Marshal von Mackensen, fighting for Germany against the Allies in the Great War. The legend swept Europe that this man was Sir Hector. Up to 1918 the Russian soldiery were certain Mackensen was Macdonald. Earlier, the fatal voyage of Kitchener from the Orkneys is whispered to have been a journey to meet Macdonald. The legend persists in the south of France. Sir Hector today would be about 90. The "bath-chair invalid” in the south of France is about that age. Can it be possible that a great general of the British Army has been “buried alive?”