COLONEL MACDONALD.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 3956, 23 January 1900, Page 5

COLONEL MACDONALD.

THE SOLDIER’S IDOL. Some yerv interesting particulars respecting Colonel Hector Archibald MacDonald, who has been appointed to the command of the Highland Brigade, under Lord Methuen, replacing General Wauchope, killed in action, have been furnished by a Melbourne resident, who heard,a good deal about the Colonel during his recent visit to England, and who had the privilege of attending the famous dinner given by the Highland Societies of London early in May this year in his honour. Hector Macdonald is, a_ “ranker,” the son of a farmer in Ross-shire, and ho was put by hisjfather behind a draper’s counter in the village where he resided. This uncongenial occupation lasted for a year. Young Macdonald took the Queen’s Shilling in 1869. and he rapidly obtained promotion from the rank of a non-commis-sioned officer to which he had risen.

He is a man of great ambition and insensible to danger. It was in Afghanistan that he first attracted the attention of Lord Roberts, through the brilliant way in which he handled his men, and from that day his promotion was rapid. At Omdurman he did a thing which is reported only to have occurred three times in modem warfare. His brigade and Jbewis’s brigade bore the brunt of the fighting, and the manoeuvre Macdonald successfully carried out was instead ot waiting for the Dervish attack to suddenly change the position of his fighting line. The American ambassador, who was present at the dinner referred to, and who was an old campaigner, described this operation as putting the men through the figure 8 in presence of the enemy. By this means the brigade under Macdonald became the attacking party, in r stead of the attacked, and -cut off the enemy from retreat to Khartoum. His career has been extraordinary, and for a man who has risen from the ranks to become aC. 8.; to have obtained the D. 5.0.; and to have been appointed aide-de-camp to the Queen, is almost without a parallel oi late years. Macdonald was among the Gordons taken prisoner at Majuha Hill in 1881, This happened shortly after his promotion from the ranks. He is under 50, round-shouldered, and about sft Bin high, —Melbourne Paper.