appointments, and his own natural gifts, fitted him admirably for intimate contact with the high officials of state, and in 1888 he became principal private secretary to the prime minister, the Marquess of Salisbury. In 1892, when Lord Salisbury left office and headed the conservative opposition, he retained the services of McDonnell as his political private secretary, and McDonnell took a prominent part in party organization and especially in the work of the Central Conservative Association. Three years later the conservatives returned to power, and McDonnell again took up the duties of principal private secretary to Lord Salisbury, and for four years filled that arduous office with distinction. The outbreak of the Boer War called him from this post to active service; and, as a captain in the City of London Imperial Volunteers, he took part in that campaign until 1900, when he returned to England. After a short rest, necessitated by a slight breakdown in health, he resumed his secretarial duties with Lord Salisbury; and two years later (1902), on the latter's retirement, McDonnell was appointed secretary to the Office of Works in succession to Viscount Esher, and created K.C.B.
In his new post McDonnell found great scope for his discriminating artistic taste, and he effected many striking improvements in the royal parks. The erection of the Queen Victoria Memorial (1911), the coronation of King George V (1911), and the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Carnarvon Castle in the same year, cast a great burden of additional work upon his shoulders; and the strain of these duties, which seemed at one time to threaten his life, caused him to retire in 1912. For ten crowded years he had carried out the exacting duties of his difficult post with conspicuous success, and during that time, as indeed throughout his life, he showed a genius for friendship which endeared him to all with whom he came into close contact. In the European War McDonnell, graded as staff captain, acted for some months as chief intelligence officer of the home district at the Horse Guards. He desired, however, a more active participation in the struggle than this appointment afforded, so he quietly threw up the post and joined the 5th Cameron Highlanders. Within three weeks he was mortally wounded on the Western front in Flanders, and died 23 November 1915 at Abeele, where his remains were interred. He married, in 1913, Ethel Henry, daughter of Major Alexander H. Davis, of La Floridiana, Naples. There were no children of the marriage.
[The Times, 27 November 1915; private information.]
MacGREGOR, Sir WILLIAM (1846–1919), colonial governor, was born 20 October 1846 at Hillockhead in the parish of Towie, Aberdeenshire. He was the eldest son of John MacGregor, a crofter, by his wife, Agnes, daughter of William Smith, a farmer, of Pitprone in the neighbouring parish of Leochel-Cushnie. He received his early education at the village school of Tillyduke, where his ability soon attracted attention. During his boyhood he was engaged in agricultural labour, but partly by his own efforts at self-education and partly by the help of friends he was able to go in 1865 to Aberdeen grammar school. Proceeding to Aberdeen University in 1867 he studied medicine there and at Glasgow, graduating M.B. of Aberdeen in 1872 and M.D. in 1874.
After practising medicine for a short time in Scotland, MacGregor was appointed in 1873 assistant medical officer in the Seychelles, in 1874 resident surgeon in the civil hospital at Port Louis, Mauritius, and in 1875 chief medical officer for the colony of Fiji. During the next thirteen years he gained much administrative experience and gave evidence of great capabilities. His resourcefulness was shown in his struggle against the epidemic of measles which decimated the population of Fiji in 1878, and his physical strength in his remarkable rescue of three people at once in a shipwreck near Suva in 1884, for which he received the Albert medal (1884) and the Clarke gold medal of Australia (1885). He gradually came to occupy important administrative posts and at times acted as temporary administrator of the colony.
In 1888 MacGregor was appointed the first administrator (receiving the title of lieutenant-governor in 1895) of British New Guinea (now the territory of Papua), the country with which his name will chiefly be associated. The territory was then in its infancy, having been proclaimed a British protectorate in 1884. There was much pioneer work to be done, and MacGregor, with but small resources, showed great energy and activity in laying the foundations of a sound administration. He organized an efficient native police out of poor material, insisted on a strict enforcement of the laws, tackled the difficult problems of land tenure and native labour, and generally promoted a policy of peaceful penetration, which re--
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