Guelph, Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the
1st Provisional Brigade of Field Artillery, Active Militia,
Barrister-at-Law and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ontario, was born
at Cobourg, on the 21st July, 1848. He is the eldest son of Archibald
Macdonald, late judge of the County Court of the County of Wellington, and
Jane Ann his wife, who was a daughter of the Rev. David Wright. Judge
Macdonald was the eldest son of the late Archibald Macdonald of Cobourg,
formerly a captain in H. M. 35th Foot, and colonel of the 4th
Northumberland Militia. Lieut.-Col. Macdonald was educated principally at
the Guelph Grammar School, and studied law in the office of Judge Ingsmill,
now of Walkerton, then practising in Guelph, and his partners, being
called to the bar at the head of his class, in Hilary term, 1870, and in
the ensuing term admitted as an attorney. Mr. Macdonald first joined the
militia as a private in the Guelph Rifle Company, and obtained a 2nd Class
Military School certificate, 10th August, 1864; and 1st Class, 8th March,
1865. Soon after he was appointed instructor to the company, with the rank
of captain, and he went with his company to the front in March, 1866. He
obtained a first class certificate in gunnery from the Royal Artillery
School, at Toronto, on the 26th May, 1870. He was commissioned as
lieutenant in the Guelph Garrison Battery on the 12th August, 1870, of
which he was appointed captain on the 12th April, in the following year.
After serving as adjutant in the 30th Battalion Artillery Militia, at the
annual drill at Goderich, 1871, the battery was converted into a field
battery, "The Wellington", in September, 1871, when Captain
Macdonald was appointed to command it, and received as a special case
promotion the brevet rank of major on 16th April, 1875. Subsequently the
Ontario Field Battery was raised at Guelph, and the batteries were
brigaded as the 1st Provisional Brigade Field Artillery, on the 24th
March, 1880, when Major Macdonald was appointed to the command, and was
given the rank of lieutenant-colonel on the 25th Nov., 1881. He had served
on the staff of Deputy Adjutant General Taylor, at London, and at Sussex,
N. B. He commanded the detachment of Canadian Artillery sent to the
Shoeburyness competitions, in 1883, and has with so much success commanded
his brigade that out of five years, from 1879 to 1884, in which prizes for
general efficiency were offered to field batteries by the Governor-General
of Canada, each of his batteries has twice won the cups. He is president
of the Council of the Dominion Artillery Association, and a member of the
Executive Committee, and he is also a member of the Council of the
Dominion Rifle Association. Lieut.-Col. Macdonald stands high is the
records of his townsfolk for ability and integrity; and for the years 1884
and 1885 he has served as alderman for Guelph. In politics, he always has
been an unswerving Conservative, and in religion, he is a member of the
Church of England. On the 21st October, 1875, he married Alicia, daughter
of the late Robert White, of Guelph. We should be by no means surprised if
our subject's position as alderman were only a step in the direction of
wider political usefulness. |