Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor

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Early life

Macdonald was born in Gwaenysgor, near Prestatyn, Flintshire, Wales. His birth was registered (as Gordon McDonald) in Holywell in the third quarter of 1888.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father, Thomas Macdonald, and his mother, Ellen, were both Welsh.<ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref> The family moved to the Lancashire Coalfield where he was brought up, his father working as a coalminer in a pit near Ashton in Makerfield.<ref name="whowho" /> Educated in a local elementary school, he initially followed his father into the collieries aged 13. He subsequently won a scholarship to Ruskin College.<ref name="obit" />

In 1920 he was elected to Wigan Board of Guardians, in 1924 became president of a local co-operative society and in the same year a miner's agent for the Miners' Federation of Great Britain.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" />

Member of Parliament

At the 1929 general election Macdonald was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Ince, holding the seat until 1942.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" /> He was a junior Labour whip from 1931 to 1934 and was chairman of committees in the House of Commons.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" /> He resigned from Parliament in July 1942 to take up the post of Regional Controller for the Ministry of Fuel and Power for the Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales Region.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" />

Governor of Newfoundland

In January 1946 he was appointed Governor of Newfoundland and Commander in Chief of Newfoundland and its Dependencies, and chairman of the unelected Commission of Government that governed the dominion.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" /> At the same time he was created Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.<ref name="obit" /> He oversaw the election of the Newfoundland National Convention in 1946, and the holding of two referendums in 1948, which led to Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada in March 1949.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" />

Macdonald was viewed as being pro-federation and was accused of bias by Peter Cashin and supporters of responsible government and of manipulating the referendums.<ref name=govthouse/>

Macdonald left the island upon its entry to Canada in 1949. Two days after his departure, an apparently congratulatory poem was published in The Evening Telegram. It emerged that the poem was an acrostic, with the first letter of each line spelling out "THE BASTARD".<ref name=govthouse/>

Paymaster-General

On return to the United Kingdom in 1949, Macdonald joined the government of Clement Attlee as Paymaster General, elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" /><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In 1950 he was leader of the British delegation to the Commonwealth Conference on Economic Aid to Countries of South East Asia held in Sydney, Australia and was a delegate to United Nations General Assembly at Lake Success, New York.<ref name="obit" /> He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1951.<ref name="whowho" /> He held office until Labour lost power at the 1951 general election.<ref name="obit" />

Later life

Macdonald continued to be active in public life.

A fluent Welsh speaker, from 1952 to 1960 he was National Governor for Wales of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and from 1953 until his death was chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Wales.<ref name="whowho" /><ref name="obit" /> From 1952 to 1959 he was a member of the Colonial Development Corporation.<ref name="whowho" />

A Congregationalist in religion, he was National President of the Band of Hope Union of Great Britain in 1951. He held two honorary doctorates in law from Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick and the University of Wales.<ref name="whowho" />

Family

In 1913 he married Mary Lewis of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The couple had two sons and one daughter.<ref name="whowho" />

He died in January 1966, aged 77. His eldest son, Gordon Ramsay MacDonald, succeeded him in the barony.<ref name="obit" />

See also

• List of people from Newfoundland and Labrador

External links

• Template:Hansard-contribs
• Lord MacDonald of Gwaenysgor on the Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• Brief description or Lord MacDonald's papers at the National Library of Wales