More about Hugh McDonald

Hugh is not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour. For more information on Hugh, visit his Service Record.

Hugh’s death was recorded as an accident having fallen from a tenement landing at 21 Glamis St, Dundee  onto a paved courtyard, fracturing his skull.

Hugh was given a full military funeral.

Private Hugh McDonald, 29th Battalion Australian Infantry, born in 1875 at Lara, Victoria was the third son of Angus McDonald, and Jessie McDonald (nee Buchanan), of Kalile PO, Victoria. Angus was born in Inverness-shire and Jessie on the Isle of Skye. They married in Victoria in January 1869.

His siblings were William, Angus, Jessie Ann, Sarah, Neil, Margaret and Elizabeth.

Hugh, aged 26, enlisted with the Contingent for Service in South Africa on 20 January 1902. He was a Boundary Rider who had been a member of the Anakie Rifle Club for seven months.. He was given a Regiment/Service number of 721.

In 1908, Hugh married Selina Maud Trigg in Victoria. Their children were William Roy Walter, George Hugh Meredith, Gordon, Annis Selina Isabel and Leslie Allen.

On 6 January 1916, Hugh enlisted at Geelong, Victoria with the 8th Infantry Brigade, 29th Infantry Battalion, 5th Reinforcements of the Australian Imperial Force. He was 40 and employed as a Horse Breaker.

On 12 January 1916, he was posted to 19th Depot Battalion, Geelong, transferred to 5th Reinforcements of 29th Battalion at Broadmeadows on 5 March 1916, embarked from Melbourne on HMAT Anchises on 14 March 1916 and disembarked at Suez around 15 April 1916. He embarked from Alexandria on 21 June 1916 on Ivernia to join the British Expeditionary Force, disembarked at Marseilles, France on 29 June 1916 and was marched out from 5th Australian Divisional Base Depot and attached to 2nd
ANZAC Headquarters on 30 September 1916.

Selina, his wife, wrote to Base Records on 30 April 1917 enquiring as to any trace of her husband as “this is the address he gave me 12 months come June and I cannot get any answer to my letters. Last September I received a card to say he was in France and never received any reply to my letters and haven’t heard from him since. Last week one letter was returned to me stating he wasn’t with 29th Battalion. So I cannot make out where he is or what has become of him.

Base Records advised that Private Hugh McDonald was now attached to 2nd Anzac
Headquarters and letters should be addressed to 2nd Anzac Headquarters, Australian Imperial Force, Abroad.

Hugh was on leave to England from 4 August 1917 and died on 6 August 1917 at 21 Glamis Street, Dundee from a fractured skull. He was buried at 4.30 pm on 10 August 1917 in Dundee Western Necropolis now known as Balgay Cemetery, Dundee. He is commemorated at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, on the Meredith War Memorial.

From the burial report of Hugh McDonald:

The deceased soldier, whose untimely death, is the subject of further investigation at Dundee was accorded a Military Funeral, Firing Party, Band and Bugler were supplied by the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders. The “Last Post” was sounded at the graveside. Col. Rev. A. J. Campbell officiated. There were no relatives present at the funeral. One soldier of the A.I.F. and one soldier of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who were on leave in the district at the time paid their last respect to the deceased soldier by attending and assisting at the funeral. An oak cross will be erected by the A.I.F.

Details of the burial were sent to Private McDonald’s widow on 18 October 1917.

A Court of Inquiry was held on 9 August 1917 at Western Barracks, Dundee, for the purpose of “enquiring into and reporting on the circumstances attending the death of Private Hugh McDonald, a soldier of the Australian Imperial Force.” The Court having viewed the scene of occurrence, find that No. 2705 Pte Hugh McDonald, 29 Battn, Australian Imperial Force, met his death at 21 Glamis Street Dundee about midnight 6/7th August 1917 by falling accidentally from a landing of the outside staircase, a distance of fourteen or fifteen feet into a paved Courtyard below, thereby sustaining a fracture of the skull. They find that Hugh McDonald was not on duty at the time of the accident, being on leave from France.

Newspaper Report from Dundee Advertiser 7 August, 1917:

Falls over stair in Glamis Street

An unknown Australian soldier met his death under somewhat pathetic circumstances in Dundee last night. A local soldier while journeying home on leave met him in Edinburgh, and deceased decided to accompany him to Dundee. They went together to the house of the Dundonian’s sister in Glamis Street, and after spending a pleasant evening the Australian left. He had just reached the top of the stairs, however, when, it is supposed, he took the wrong turning and fell over a small railing to the basement fifteen feet below. The Colonial landed on his head, fracturing his skull. He was taken to the Infirmary but succumbed to his injuries. In his possession was a pass bearing the name Hugh McDonald.

Selina McDonald, his widow, wrote to Colonel Hawker on 15 October 1917 enquiring as to the belongings of her late husband and:

Have you heard as to the cause of fractured skull and how he came to be in Scotland at the time of death. Did he get wounded and sent there for treatment or what. Seems so strange. Ever since my husband left Australia I couldn’t trace him with letters only to get some returned.

Base Records replied to Mrs McDonald on 22 October 1917 advising her that her late husband “was on furlough at the time of his death, and with a comrade was visiting some friends, when late at night through taking a wrong turning, deceased fell over the railing of a stairway to the pavement below and was killed. His personal effects have not yet been returned to this Office.”

A War Pension was granted to Selina in the sum of £2 per fortnight from 11 October 1917 and her children – William – 20/- fortnightly, George – 15/-fortnightly, Annis – 10/-fortnightly and Leslie – 10/- fortnightly.