More about Angus McDonald

HMS Pheasant, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Glasgow in 1916 and owned at the time of her loss by Royal Navy, was a British destroyer of 1025 tons.

On March 1st, 1917, HMS Pheasant was sunk by a mine from the German submarine U-80 (Alfred von Glasenapp), west of the Orkney Islands (Barrage 39). 88 persons were lost.

Angus McDonald was the son of Mrs Rachel McDonald of 208 Seagate, Dundee and was a Millworker when he volunteered to join the Royal Navy as a Boy in October 1901. He trained onboard the training ship HMS Northampton before going to sea in several warships including HM Ships Cleopatra, Doris, Barfleur, Vengeance, Devonshire, Hogue, Royal Arthur and Kent. He was serving in HMS London at the outbreak of war in 1914 and remained in this ship until mid 1916. He was drafted to the destroyer HMS Pheasant in November of that year. In the early hours of the 1st of March 1917, whilst on regular patrol, HMS Pheasant struck a mine off Rora Head, Hoy, Orkney. All 89 members of the crew lost their lives that day. Only one body was ever recovered, that of Midshipman Reginald Cotter. Angus McDonald is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Plymouth Hoe, Devon. The Orkney News, based in Kirkwall, is creating an exhibition to remember all those lost onboard. The wreck was finally found in 1996 by the British Army Sub Aqua Club.