Fighting Mac: The Downfall of Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald

by Trevor Royle

On a spring morning in 1903, Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald, one of Britain's greatest military heroes, took his life in a hotel room in Paris. A few days later he was buried hastily in an Edinburgh cemetery as his fellow countrymen tried to come to terms with the fact that one of Scotland's most famous soldiers had ended his life rather than face charges against his character. The suicide and its aftermath created a national scandal and one which still reverberates long after those dramatic events—it is now clear that the official files dealing with his case, the papers of the Judge Advocate, have been destroyed. Fighting Mac tells the true story behind his disgrace and sheds new light on the myths and legends which grew up after his death. It also provides a compelling insight into what it was like for a ranker like Macdonald to enter the privileged territory of the officers mess in an elite Highland regiment, The Gordon Highlanders. Finally it examines the political and military background to Queen Victoria's little wars of empire and the conditions facing the ordinary soldier at home and abroad.

Genres: History, Biography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Trevor Royle is a broadcaster and author specialising in the history of war and empire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was a member of the Scottish Government’s Advisory Panel for Commemorating the First World War.

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I became intrigued with Gen MacDonald because of a particular favorite harp tune I love to play called Hector the Hero. I knew it was written by a fiddler from MacDonald's regiment in response to learning of the death of the general. However, I decided to research a bit because the tune is so beautiful and captures plaintive loneliness the way scots tune can do so singularly.

I have a penchant for soldier heroes who exhibit uncommon virtue, but this general's story is not normally one that would draw me in, but the song...it's so beautiful. I think anyone would have to admit he was truly legendary. MacDonald was a type amongst military men that rise above others because of his distinctive and uncommon virtue of self-discipline and courage even when faced with serious societal challenges. I found myself particularly and surprisingly sympathetic with this man after realizing and even appreciating his ability to live at the limits of human endurance we know much more about now than they ever did then. This was a career soldier and veteran of numerous battle engagements that do leave their psychic damage. I can't imagine a lifetime of this kind of living or the type of character or resilience one has to have in order to be as successful as MacDonald was...enormously ambitions, controlled, intelligent and brave. He was a wildly popular figure in his day and this too I imagine is a also a burden to carry.

This biography was difficult because I could not get a profound sense of the man, only a distant sense of him that leaves one feeling disturbed, as if something doesn't add up. The author remains pretty objective thankfully. I am approaching his story on his own defense that he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of. He valued his career obviously and when he left Ceylon to seek advice of his superiors regarding a potentially very serious matter, I don't think he was shirking. I imagine the rumor mill was spinning, there was a rumor mill to provide the spinning because he was already unpopular with the self-important class of people he preferred not to cater to. Ah, just writing this makes me sad even over this great distance of time. Once he was advised to return immediately to clean up and defend his character in Ceylon he didn't know yet it was too late until he saw the newspaper headlines in Paris...giant letters on the front page spelling out the demise of Fighting Mac. How does one clean up that mess? He must have felt completely surrounded this time by an enemy he couldn't overcome with traditionally by fighting until his life was taken from him. So in a way, he did face them and conceded with his life to the impossible odds...as it seemed to him in his lone and abandoned state. Maybe people were disappointed that he didn't fight, maybe they think his suicide proved guilt, but to a man like Hector MacDonald, he had nothing but his reputation he WAS his reputation...a reputation he formed with honor his whole life only to be met at this point in his life with having to prove more when he had already given everything. His whole hard life up in the smoke of what we should at least consider might have been malicious. Perhaps that it would be entertained despite his denial was a wound we can hardly begin to appreciate because few people have lived like he did.

His death seems to convey a sense that he knew he was alone and was accustomed to being alone. He seemed impervious to hurt and that is saddest of all how impervious he actually was. A million people would have been there in a moment had they known. It is obvious that Hector MacDonald didn't know this.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short investigative biography of Hector Macdonald, the British soldier who went from Scottish Private to Major General, fought in some of the Victorian Era's greatest battles, only to be undone by ill-concealed pederasty. I didn't learn much about Macdonald that I hadn't known from Byron Farwell's sketch in Eminent Victorian Soldiers. He's a tragic figure in his way, but then forcing oneself on young boys is a crime in any age; claims that Macdonald was resented for his lower-class origins seem overblown. Royle is perhaps most interesting investigating post-mortem rumors about Macdonald, namely that he faked his death and reemerged as a German field marshal during the Great War.

[Martin Marais · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. It is a very readable account of the life of a forgotten Scottish hero, who was a Victorian celebrity. It also gives an important insight into the loneliness of someone who moved across the social barriers of Victorian England and suffered the consequences.

[Vicky Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and readable account. The author describes the book as ‘a biographical investigation’ rather than a regular biography, covering the ‘life and times’ in which Macdonald rose from the ranks to become a military hero and the ‘most mysterious circumstances’ of his reported suicide in a Paris hotel room at the height of his military career in 1903.

The tone of the book is serious, sympathetic and appealing – no conspiracy-theory hype despite the inevitable element of mystery and the rumours that grew up around Macdonald’s death, including extensive claims that he materialised on the Balkan front in World War I under the guise of Prussian Field-Marshal von Mackensen.

The coverage of the life and times in which Macdonald lives is fascinating. The author delivers a good narrative pace and a sense of drama, whilst incorporating enough factual background and analysis to support thought-provoking insights into the character and exploits of a man who lived in a very different milieu from the 21st century.

The most interesting areas for me included the portrayal of the Highland Regiments and of the developing narrative of Scottish military heroism in the context of the empire, often contrasted with inadequate English leadership. Also, the realities of late Victorian military life, its varied portrayal in literature and popular opinion and the potential social and economic drawbacks of achieving promotion from the ranks to the status of commissioned officer.

Following Macdonald’s career, the book covers a number of significant military and political episodes providing an overview, and something of the author’s own analysis, of events leading up to them. Cruel and inglorious aspects of the British empire are considered alongside the reality that this was a time of national and military pride in Britain’s imperial domination.

The book may appeal to anyone interested in the Second Afghan War (particularly the conflict at the Shutargardan Pass and march from Kabul to Kandahar); the Boer War of 1881 (especially Majuba Hill); British involvement in Egypt and Sudan from the early 1880s to the Battle of Omdurman in 1898; and the Boer War of 1899-1902 in which Macdonald commanded the Highland Brigade at Magersfontein, Koodoosberg and Paardeberg.

Macdonald was posted to India in June 1901 and subsequently to Ceylon with some details given of the Ceylon Civil Service and of the colonial society and governance at the time.

The book concludes with a straightforward and moving account of Macdonald’s final days, the contentious, almost farcical, circumstances of his funeral and the ensuing popular outcry and mythology that grew up around these.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't complain that this biography isn't thorough but it isn't very interesting because there Hector MacDonald has left no paper trail. There are no letters or diaries and because he killed himself before the scandal broke there are no legal or army records. Even newspaper reports, mostly foreign, were mostly recycling rumours and gossip and that for only a short time. His suicide silenced everyone, which may be the reason behind it.

I am surprised that the author seems to suggest their might be some truth to the legend that 'Fighting Bob' faked his suicide and served in the German army in WWI as General Mackensen. You only have to read his wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_...) to realise the absurdity of the theory. Mackensen was born in 1849 and had a life and career, including marriage, children, ennoblement in 1899 while Hector MacDonald was still in the British army.

Hector MacDonald is better served by fiction and I would recommend 'An Honourable Death' by Iain Crichton Smith, a novel, over this 'biography' if you want to understand the MacDonald.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent short biography of the life of Major General Sir Hector MacDonald. A classic story of one man's rise to fame that would be extinguished by a single controversy. The book is also a great account of the life of a British soldier serving in the time of Queen Victoria's "Little Wars."