Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor (27 May 1888 – 20 January 1966) was a
British Labour Party politician and
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
's final British
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
as well as the last chairman of the
Commission of Government serving from 1946 until the colony joined
Confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical iss ...
in 1949 and became a
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
.
Early life
Macdonald was born in Gwaenysgor, near
Prestatyn
Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085,
History Prehistory
There is evidence that ...
,
Flintshire
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,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. His birth was registered (as Gordon McDonald) in Holywell in the third quarter of 1888. His father, Thomas Macdonald, and his mother, Ellen, were both
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
.
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
Ashton may refer to:
Names
*Ashton (given name)
* Ashton (surname)
Places Australia
* Ashton, Elizabeth Bay, a heritage-listed house in Sydney, New South Wales
* Ashton, South Australia
Canada
* Ashton, Ontario
New Zealand
* Ashton, New Zealan ...
.
Educated in a local elementary school, he initially followed his father into the collieries aged 13. He subsequently won a scholarship to
Ruskin College
Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) ...
.
In 1920 he was elected to Wigan
Board of Guardians
Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.
England and Wales
Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the po ...
, in 1924 became president of a local
co-operative society
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
and in the same year a miner's agent for the
Miners' Federation of Great Britain
The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...
.
Member of Parliament
At the
1929 general election Macdonald was elected
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Ince, holding the seat until 1942.
He was a
junior Labour whip from 1931 to 1934 and was chairman of committees in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.
He resigned from Parliament in July 1942 to take up the post of Regional Controller for the
Ministry of Fuel and Power
The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy.
The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. ...
for the Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales Region.
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
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
.
At the same time he was created
Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III.
It is named in honour ...
.
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
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
in March 1949.
Macdonald was viewed as being pro-federation and was accused of bias by
Peter Cashin and supporters of
responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive br ...
and of manipulating the referendums.
[
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
An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the F ...
, with the first letter of each line spelling out "THE BASTARD".[
]
Paymaster-General
On return to the United Kingdom in 1949, Macdonald joined the government of Clement Attlee as Paymaster-General
His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The incumbent Paymaster General is Jeremy Quin MP.
History
The post was created in 1836 by the merger of the posit ...
, elevated to the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
as Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor. 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
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
and was a delegate to United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
at Lake Success, New York. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...
in 1951. He held office until Labour lost power at the 1951 general election.
Later life
Macdonald continued to be active in public life.
A fluent Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
speaker, from 1952 to 1960 he was National Governor for Wales of the British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
.
in 1951. He held two
.
. The couple had two sons and one daughter.
He died in January 1966, aged 77. His eldest son,
, succeeded him in the barony.
at the National Library of Wales
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